Dragonball AU: Book One
by Mirai Lianna
Summary: Lianna Briefs, bored with life in the future, travels back in time to visit her alternate family after a long absence. GohanOC
1. Chapter 1

Dragonball AU

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

* * *

Tumbling; twisting; turning. The motions repeated endlessly, as if the most pretentious and boring dancer in existence choreographed them. It seemed never ending, the waves of black and blue rushing past at great speeds though there was no wind, it was a complete vacuum. Small pieces of debris floated amongst the blue and rushed past just as fast. 

_Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick..._Lianna thought as she felt her stomach churn; she couldn't tell up from down, left from right, back from front, yet her stomach seemed to tell her that whatever direction she was facing was not the natural way her body should be. She wished she'd brought a paper bag or something, but she didn't think it'd be necessary since she didn't remember the travel being this arduous. Suddenly she felt a massive surge of g-force as the tunnel suddenly flashed a brilliant white and the time capsule in which she sat was hurled into the sky overlooking West City, but more importantly, almost directly over the one building she was happy to set her eyes on – Capsule Corporation.

-----

Bulma grinned triumphantly to herself as she finished one of her soon-to-be infamous inventions. She held the orange and black helmet in her hands and examined it carefully before setting it on the head of a mannequin near by. She stepped back and took one last look at her "brilliant" creation.

_It should be a crime to be such a genius! Gohan's going to love this, _Bulma thought happily to herself as she ran her fingers over the fine material of the blood red cape. She then turned and caught sight of the time on the clock hanging on the wall. It was a quarter past six o' clock.

"Oh!" she exclaimed quietly in surprise. She hadn't even realized how late it had been. She quickly capsulized the outfit and installed it into an average looking wrist watch. She pocketed the watch and hurried out of the room, she knew that arrogant ass husband of hers would barge in soon, demanding his dinner.

As she walked through the house to the kitchen, Bulma kept an eye out for her ill-tempered husband and, much to her relief, made it without coming into contact with him. _Must be in the Gravity Chamber..._, she thought, before shrugging and continuing her way to the kitchen.

-----

Lianna guided her time capsule down to the street and landed, accumulating a huge crowd of gob smacked onlookers, who had seen her appear from thin air. She looked around and smiled, partly because she was the center of attention, and because most of the more pubescent members of the crowd were staring at her specifically. However, she mostly guessed it was because she was back where she'd longed to be for some time. She capsulized the ship and grinned to herself as she placed it back in its respective case. As the eyes of most of the male – and some female – spectators decided to look at her face rather than her shapely physique, whispers began to ripple through the crowd when some people saw a resemblance to the richest, and smartest woman alive.

Kitchenware clattered together as Bulma pulled several pots and pans out of their homes that were kitchen cupboards. She sighed to herself and placed them on the stove before gathering the vast amounts of food needed to satisfy Vegeta's ravenous appetite. As she started to peel the potatoes, the doorbell rang. Tempted to not answer the door, Bulma continued peeling, wanting to get dinner done as quick as possible. Again, the doorbell rang, twice this time, and once more Bulma chose to ignore it. When the bell rang for the fourth time, Bulma decided to answer. The bell rang repeatedly, and grew more frantic each time it chimed.

"Alright, alright…jeez…" She muttered, wiping her hands in a tea towel as she left the kitchen and went to the front door. She opened it and was met by Lianna tumbling through the doorway. Bulma stepped to one side and let her stumble into the house, she looked out to see a mass of people standing in the street, staring at her. She quickly shut the door and looked at Lianna, who was busy making sure her hair wasn't out of shape. Bulma stared at her hard and it quickly dawned on her who it was standing in her home and fixing her hair. "Lianna…?"

Lianna grinned cheekily at her, "Hi mom! Wow...it's been so long...um...sorry about rushing in like that...the crowd was getting kind of bad..."

Bulma cocked an eyebrow and locked the door, "Why's there a crowd outside in the first place?" She queried, folding her arms across her chest.

"They uh…kinda saw me appear in the time capsule." Lianna replied sheepishly.

Bulma wanted to laugh, but she knew she shouldn't. People weren't supposed to know about time travel. It was bad enough they knew about aliens now. Bulma started on a question but stopped when she heard the unmistakable clanking of the Gravity Chamber door. Lianna's face brightened – she recognised the noise, and knew exactly who would be coming out of the chamber.

Vegeta walked out into the living room, leaving the door open with full intentions of returning soon. He glanced at Bulma and Lianna and paused, was that the same little girl he met seven years ago? _His _little girl, he added, although it was a little strange to him to call anyone 'his little girl' he didn't mind so much saying that about Lianna. She was a likable girl, even to Vegeta. She had changed quite a bit, although seven years _will _do that to a person.

She now stood at roughly five feet, give or take an inch or so, her jet-black black hair still had the soft lavender ends and it fell to just above her waist, even in the ponytail she kept it in. Her large blue eyes seemed to have a grin of their own now, very much like Bulma's eyes he noticed, only without the slight imperfections that came with human aging. She obviously trained in her time, though, Vegeta mused, her physique could be an inherited trait from him - he liked both ideas. His attention then turned to Bulma, and to why she wasn't in the kitchen.

"Woman," he started, his signature frown pressing down on his dark eyes, "Why aren't you-"

"In the kitchen making your damn dinner? Guess." Bulma interrupted, she knew what he was going to say, these days his vocabulary didn't really extend much more than 'woman', 'food' and 'now'.

He looked at Lianna again, who grinned and waved at him. "Hm…it's been a while, Lianna."

"I know!" Lianna cried excitedly before running over and hugging him tightly. He looked down at her and smiled just a little, despite his years on Earth he still wasn't used to this 'hugging' concept, it just wasn't him, much like celebrating Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and Thanksgiving. In fact, the only concept humans thought up that Vegeta found worthwhile in any way was Father's Day – he saw it solely as a day of worship to him, at least in their house. Not surprisingly, it was his favourite day of the year.

"So how've you both been?" Lianna asked, pulling away from her father.

"Oh, we've been fine," Bulma answered cheerfully, happy that Lianna'd come back after so long. Vegeta just gave a grunt, it was indiscernible to Lianna whether or not it was his 'yes' grunt or his 'no' grunt – she took it as a yes anyway.

Bulma suddenly blinked and immediantly noticed the absence of one other person, "Didn't Trunks come back with you this time?"

Lianna shook her head, "No, he decided to stay in the future with his new wife,"

Bulma's eyes widened. A wife? Her son? Well…ok, the future Trunks wasn't _her_ son, but he was still a variation of her little boy.

"A wife? Who is she?" Bulma asked.

Lianna smiled cheerfully, "Her name's Emily, she's really nice. You'd like her."

"Oh, I would, huh?" She suddently felt her motherly instincts come into play. She also couldn't help but feel excited. Even though Trunks wasn't really her son, it was still a glimspe into the future and well, gossip is gossip. "So what does she do? What's her last name? Who are her parents? How long have they been married? Do I have any future grandchildren? Where did she-"

Vegeta frowned in annoyance. He couldn't help but feel that women talked too much--especially Bulma. He already knew one of her favorite past times was gossiping and hearing news like this would only make things worse; considering the fact that the more she talked, the more time she was wasting on cooking his dinner. He decided it was time to interrupt, once he saw Lianna open her mouth to reply.

"Where's my food?" It wasn't really a question, he knew where it was and how it wasn't being cooked; it was an undercover order for Bulma to go fix it. If he told her directly to 'get in the kitchen and make dinner' he knew she'd either tell him where to go or, out of sheer spite, order a pizza or Chinese food, and he hated, absolutely abhorred, fast food. It was OK if it was cooked properly in decent eateries or the home, but coming from those crappy, greasy little restaurants it was just plain vile. Chewing dirt off bathroom tiles was much tastier and was probably better for you anyway, according to Vegeta that is. Bulma rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen, back to her potatoes and back to inwardly complaining about her husband. Lianna couldn't help but grin to herself, '_Yup...things haven't changed not ooone bit._'

-----

Meanwhile, in a little house miles from nowhere atop Mt. Paozu, in the time it had taken for Lianna to appear, enter the Brief's residence and meet her alternate parents for dinner; in this little house, dinner had already been served and eaten. That may not seem like a huge feat, but given the fact that dinner consisted of several, usually more than five, courses. Then again, considering the two who were eating were Saiyajin, five courses each isn't really anything special. Chi-Chi scrubbed the dishes as they started to pile up on the table, Gohan and Goten could eat faster than she could clean, so it was wise to start when they did.

After their meal, as always, the two boys went to train outside. Chi-Chi didn't really like Goten training all that much, just the thought of it made her think that something bad was going to happen, as was always the case when everyone started to train. But she also thought it was good for him to keep fit and she knew Goten had mounds of fun training with Gohan and Trunks, so she decided it would be a good thing to let him train.

Outside, Gohan was pretty impressed with Goten's progression as a fighter; he was really improving. He'd even managed to land a few hits on Gohan, but the older Son put it down to luck and the fact that he hadn't trained that much since the Cell Games, and in actual fact, gotten a little sloppy. Naturally, Goten was none too pleased by the remark and lay Gohan out flat on his back by leaping up and head butting him in the chest.

"Hey!" Gohan exclaimed, sitting up. "That was a sucker move!"

Goten pouted and folded his arms across his chest,"Well…you were mean!"

Laughing, Gohan got to his feet and rubbed his chest, "I guess if you were fighting a planet-destroying alien, sucker moves are allowed…" He said, ruffling Goten's hair.

Goten grinned and bounced up and down on the spot. "C'mon, let's keep going!" He said enthusiastically.

Gohan laughed again, his little brother reminded him of his father in almost every way – the way he looked, the way he acted, everything. It was great to have him around, he always did want a little brother, but Gohan couldn't help but think of Goku each time he looked at him. It hurt sometimes; it hurt a lot. He could still see his father, one hand on Cell's bulging body, looking back at him with the kind of smile he'd always give when he knew things would be okay. And things were more than ok from that day onward, they'd experienced the longest spell of peace since he'd been born and no one had been happier. Though they all wished Goku was still there, Bulma especially, who'd known Goku longer than anyone else.

"Bulma…" Gohan murmured, he was supposed to remember something, something to do with her, "…my costume!"

Goten blinked and tilted his head slightly, "What costume? Are you going to a party? Or is it Halloween?"

"Nothing squirt, I need to go to Bulma's for a while. I'll be back later, tell mom for me, ok?" The younger Son nodded and watched his big brother take off and disappear into the distance.

-----

Back at Capsule Corporation, Vegeta and Bulma were sitting at the table, eating their dinner in virtual silence, mainly because Vegeta hated talking while eating. To him, it was either one or the other, not both at the same time, which was why he could never stand eating at the same table as Goku, who jabbered between each bite. Lianna and Trunks were playing tag in the living room, under orders from Bulma to not make a mess. Orders they'd disobeyed as, after only five minutes of play, they had broken a lamp and two expensive-looking ornaments.

It was Lianna's turn to be 'it', which would explain the broken items. Trunks dived over the couch and was almost followed by Lianna when there was a knock on the front door. Bulma sighed and got up from her seat and walked into the dining room. Vegeta didn't budge an inch, and it wasn't expected of him to move at all except to stuff more food in his mouth. She went through the living room, ignoring Lianna and Trunks tumbling around on the floor, and opened the front door. Gohan smiled down at her and he didn't have the chance to even open his mouth before Bulma spoke.

"Come in! I've got your costume ready," She said, motioning for Gohan to follow her as she walked back through the living room and into another room.

He stepped into the house and shut the door and, upon hearing a loud giggle followed by Trunks leaping up from behind the couch and disappearing down the hallway to the back yard, walked towards the couch. He stopped when Lianna quickly stood up, giggling to herself. She quickly noticed Gohan looking at her and stared at him, he stared back and quickly took in the image of beauty before him.

She was much shorter than he was, but he didn't really notice that, the thing he did notice was the glow she seemed to give off, a radiance that he hadn't seen since…well…he _hadn't_ seen that kind of radiance before, which made her all the more fascinating to him. Her large blue eyes were beautifully deep and her body, a living sculpture of physical perfection, curved voluptuously. And, of course, he couldn't help but notice her rather large bust, something that set Gohan's face ablaze in a furious blush. He could've stared at her all day, had Bulma not reappeared in the living room and barked an order for him to come with her.

Lianna's eyes slowly followed Gohan as he somewhat reluctantly trailed behind Bulma. _Who was that_...? She thought as she stared at the spot where he once stood. Lianna felt a slight chill in the room at the sudden loss of his presence. His mere aura seemed to warm her heart. And those eyes...his eyes...they were a soft onyx colour, gentle yet hardened by all of the trials and hardships that have occurred in his life. Most of all...they felt..._familiar_. She had seen those eyes before, felt like this before, but for some reason she couldn't exactly pinpoint it. Lianna smiled to herself, she just might be staying longer than she originally predicted.

In the room into which Bulma had practically dragged him, Gohan was still deep in thought about the girl he just saw in the living room.

"Who was that?" He asked. Or rather he would have asked had Bulma not tossed a small gadget at him. He caught the object and examined it. It looked like a digital watch, it even told the time correctly, but as Bulma had explained in greatly complicated and completely unnecessary detail it was basically a fancy casing for a capsule which, when he pressed a certain button, released a costume so loud in color it could drown out even the shrillest of banshee wails. As he stared at himself in the full-length mirror he grinned and pulled the helmet off.

"This costume's so cool, Bulma. Thanks!" Bulma laughed and straightened his cape a little.

"You're welcome, Gohan. Just be careful not to break the watch, okay?" Gohan nodded and pressed another button on the watch, which retracted the costume.

"I'll be careful with it. Thanks again!" He'd gotten so excited with his new costume he'd completely forgotten about the mysterious girl he bumped into, even as he walked through the living room to the front door he hadn't noticed she wasn't there anymore.

-----

While all this was happening – Gohan enjoying his life, Lianna coming back after a seven-year absence – there was one person, one little girl whose existence was little more than woeful. In a darker part of West City, in the slummier part of white-trash suburbia there was a house, a very small and unkempt house, where this little girl lived with her single mother. This girl, a tot named Reeni, was old beyond her years, which could only be a bad thing for a two-year-old. Despite the rusty garden gate, despite the tall and uncut grass of the front yard and the rickety, woodworm-infested screen door no one could possibly imagine the sadness of this little girl's short life.

Reeni sighed sadly as she waddled slowly into the kitchen. This was the _eighth_ time she'd be sent to the kitchen to retrieve a drink for her mother. Much like most of the house, it was a place she hated to be, mainly because of all the bad things that had happened in that room. There were things, heavy things – _sharp_ things – in that room, things she'd seen the wrong side of many times before. And it wasn't just her mother; people she brought back were just as bad to Reeni.

They'd sometimes violently assault her and abuse her verbally until she was allowed to leave the room, crying as only a toddler could. Then it sounded like they'd turn on her mother, for she'd scream a lot, there'd be loud crashing noises and Reeni would come down an hour or so later after making sure they were alone to find her mother sitting on the floor either drunk or drugged up to her eyeballs with her legs wide open and blood trickling down her face. It happened on a daily basis, and she had no idea why her mother would do such things.

Reeni's mother never cleaned the house, and as a result the floors in every room were dirty and stained with various substances – blood, alcohol, microwave food and other unknown things. Cupboards hung open, drawers lay on the floor with utensils scattered around them. Reeni cried out as she slipped on a fresh patch of something, she landed on her backside and looked down at the floor. What was it? It wasn't blood…mayonnaise, maybe? It was a lot stickier than mayonnaise and it smelled awful, she daren't touch it again.

The toddler got to her feet and hurried over to a low cabinet, opened it and pulled out a large bottle of Vodka. She really couldn't understand why her mother even bothered with the stuff. Not only did it smell horrible, but it tasted bad too. Sometimes her mother would forget to go grocery shopping and then she had no choice but to drink this disgusting liquid along with her. She never fully remembered drinking it, but she always remembered waking up with a very bad headache and feeling extremely nauseous, which made her hate the stuff even more.

"Hurry up, kid!" Yelled a loud and slurred voice from the living room. Reeni readjusted the bottle in her tiny hands and made an effort to leave the kitchen as soon as possible, dodging the patch of white slime she'd previously slipped on. She knew all too well how angry her mother could get if she didn't do something right. She still had the scrapes and bruises from the last time her mother had gotten upset with her. She tried to apologize between blows, but her mother was either too mad or too drunk to listen.

Reeni quickly entered the living room, a room with little more than a tattered and torn dark green couch, a coffee table made from three tyres stacked on top of each other and a cupboard door and a small television sitting on a small wooden chair in the corner. There wasn't even a carpet and Reeni didn't have socks to wear, so the wood would always irritate her feet. Save for the light from the television the room was completely dark for two reasons, one was because the windows were boarded up due to a couple of rocks finding their way through to the living room and the other reason was that, in a fit of rage, one of her mother's past boyfriends had torn out the light fixture as well as putting a hole in the door with his fist.

Reeni quickly ran over the coarse and stained wooden floor to her mother, "Here, mommy. Here your bot-" She suddenly felt the bottle slipping from her hands. Reeni's eyes widened slightly as she quickly tried to hold it steady, but her efforts were of little avail, as the bottle crashed noisily to the floor, sending alcohol and shards of glass everywhere. She stared up at her mother in horror and watched her as she slowly rose from the couch, "Mommy...s-sorry..."

"You little brat! You can't do anything right! I'm so tired of you making all these careless mistakes!" the woman yelled angrily as she hastily raised her hand. Reeni shut her eyes tightly in fear and waited for her mother to strike her as she always did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the chapter.

A week had passed since Lianna came back from her time; a _long_ week as far as Vegeta was concerned. He'd barely had a moment's peace with her around. He didn't mind though, it wasn't like she dragged him out shopping or anything – she had Bulma for that – so usually their time together was spent in the Gravity Chamber. _Not a bad fighter, for a girl_, was what Vegeta thought the first time they sparred, and she only improved with each session they had. Again, a week had passed and still Lianna could not get the image of that boy out of her mind, it drove her crazy, who was he? She thought he was pretty cute, and the way he blushed as he returned her stare was just adorable in her opinion.

"You're getting better, Lianna,"

"Better than you?" Lianna grinned in response as she moonsaulted over her father when he appeared behind her. She landed and jumped up, bringing her right leg across to the back of Vegeta's head. He glanced over his shoulder, ducked, and grabbed her foot, which was an inch away from him.

"Don't get cocky." He said before swinging her around and letting her go. She sailed hard into the wall and slumped to the floor, trying to catch the breath that was knocked from her lungs.

Lianna slowly stood and raised an eyebrow, "Don't get cocky! And to think, this is coming from "The Prince of All Saiyajins"!"

Vegeta crossed his arms as his usual scowl formed on his face, "Listen here, _Princess, _you-"

Just then the door to the chamber clanked and groaned as Bulma pushed it open before peering into the room.

"Come on you two, breakfast." Vegeta said nothing, talk was cheap and food got cold, so he simply left the room with Lianna trailing behind him, muttering to herself., "I hate that nickname…"

By the time it took Lianna and Bulma to reach the kitchen, Trunks and Vegeta were already halfway through their food with empty plates and inedible foods like bones and the like tossed to the side. They sat down and started to eat. Bulma obviously didn't eat as much as the others and, although Lianna did, she ate with a bit more dignity and cleanliness than the two males at the table, who had now begun a joint assault on a turkey.

"So Lianna," Bulma began, speaking between bites, "how much longer are you planning to stay here? I mean you can stay as long as you like, I'm just wondering."

Had Bulma asked her a week ago, Lianna would have said that she wouldn't stay for very much longer, but the identity of that boy she saw was still a mystery and she just had to know who he was and even see him again if she could. So that helped Lianna come to her decision.

"Uh…well, I was hoping I could stay for as long as I can," she smiled, "I really like it here."

Bulma nodded and waited for Vegeta and Trunks to finish the last scraps of their breakfast and leave the kitchen before she spoke,"Well, since you're staying, it might be a good idea to start school."

Lianna's face brightened. School? She hadn't thought of that, but she loved the idea. School never used to be an option for anyone while the androids were terrorising the Earth in her time, so attending one now seemed like a great idea, "Sure, I'd love to start school," she beamed, "but how do I sign up?"

Bulma waved her hand and wiped her mouth before getting to her feet, "Don't worry about that," she said, "I'll sort that out. You get ready."

Lianna grinned and quickly finished her breakfast before running out of the kitchen as her mother picked up the kitchen phone and began dialling.

-----

Meanwhile, at Reeni's home, things were worse than usual. Reeni sat in the corner of her room, sobbing into her knees. Her room was one of the more deplorable parts of the house; her carpet was encrusted with dirt, mouse and rat droppings and food; the only window she had was boarded up and it only let the tiniest amount of light through the small cracks; the wallpaper was brown and peeling and her bed was nothing more than a single thin blanket on the floor.

Reeni sobbed quietly, she had to, if her mother heard then she would be in for some more punishment. She moved her legs and winced. On her right thigh there was a nasty looking burn mark, a fresh one, amongst many healing wounds of the same nature.

In the past week Felecia – Reeni's mother – had found a new boyfriend, one who was just as depraved, troubled and abusive as Felecia herself. He was the one who had burned her leg, as well as yelled at her, pushed and hit her. He didn't hit her that hard, or at least not hard enough to leave a mark, but it still hurt. The young girl looked up when a loud noise came from downstairs, followed by shouting and cursing. She sighed and wiped her eyes; it wouldn't be long until he was gone and she could go downstairs to her mother and try to make up for the trouble she'd caused to be treated so badly.

-----

Overwhelmed. That's how Lianna felt when she got out of her new hovercar, which was provided by Bulma, and looked up at the rather large building that was Orange Star High School – she would have flown, but didn't want to draw any more attention to herself. She already had people staring at her, she daren't think about the crowd she'd have around her if she just came from the sky. It would be a damn sight bigger crowd than the one from outside Capsule Corporation on the day she arrived.

The car was quickly capsulized and Lianna hurried into the building, almost losing herself in the sea of teenagers that heaved through the double-door entrance. She was pushed back and forth in every possible direction, it was like she was in the time capsule again and pushing back wasn't really an option since she really didn't want to hurt anyone. But she ended up having no choice, as the front desk gradually got further and further away from her. Without using the full capacity of her strength, Lianna made her way through the crowd towards the desk, behind which sat a frail looking old woman. She looked up at Lianna and smiled warmly as she watched the young girl fight to keep her place in front of the desk.

"Hello and welcome to Orange Star High School, how can I help you?" She asked in a voice that was as warm as her smile.

Lianna, having won her battle to stay in one spot, looked down at her and smiled back, "Hi, I start here today and I need a schedule."

The lady behind the desk nodded and tapped seemingly random keys on the keyboard in front of her, "What's your name?"

Lianna glanced around and leant as close to her as possible before divulging the information requested, "Lianna Briefs." She whispered.

The receptionist grinned widely and got a bit more excited than what Lianna thought was healthy for someone her age,"Yes…yes, I can see the resemblance! You're Bu-" Her sentence was cut three words short by Lianna quickly covering her mouth. The words 'Bulma' and 'Briefs' were enough to cause a stir when uttered in a crowd of people, but add the word 'daughter' to it and 'a stir' would be a gross understatement to describe the situation.

Lianna sighed and moved her hand from the lady's mouth, "Yeah, I am…could I get my schedule please?"

"Sure," the woman replied as she got to her feet, to Lianna's amazement the receptionist was still shorter than her even when standing, "I'll get it for you."

The young girl watched the older woman as she disappeared into a door behind her, emerging about a minute later with a piece of paper in her hand. "Here you go," she said, handing the paper to Lianna, "have a nice day!"

-----

There wasn't much to do or to say, so Reeni sat quietly next to her mother, who was sitting on the kitchen floor, staring drunkenly down at the floor. Her boyfriend had beaten her pretty badly, one of her eyes were swollen and both were blackened; her lip was cut; she had bruises all over her face and arms and a cut on her forehead. She'd gotten back at him though; there were small drops of blood on her hands and some skin under her fingernails. Reeni didn't know why she let him hit her the way he did, Felecia wasn't defenceless like she was, so why did she let him? Reeni was too young to possibly understand, but there _was_ a reason why.

Felecia was sexually repressed as a child, and as she came into late teens she had her first experience. From then on she craved sex, she looked for it in everyone no matter what age, race or gender they were. She gained a very bad reputation and it got to the point where nobody wanted anything to do with her because of it. Through the years of anonymous sex, she developed a fetish, one that combined her love of sex with violence. She liked to hit and be hit by her sexual partner. It hurt, but she loved it.

At least an hour and a half had passed when Felecia's boyfriend returned, slamming the rickety door behind him, which woke Reeni up. Her mother had moved and was sitting in the living room, still bloody and bruised, with a bottle of alcohol in her hand.

"Reeni…!" Kyle growled as he stumbled into the living room, "vodka!"

Reeni rubbed her eyes and got to her feet as quickly as she could. Making Felecia mad was one thing, but Kyle seemed to have a malice towards Reeni that was above and beyond anything Felecia felt. She waddled to the one cupboard that actually had something in it and pulled it open. She knew what vodka was, her mother drank copious amounts of the vile liquid, but since Kyle moved in he kept his drink in the same cupboard and it was hard for Reeni to tell which was which.

"Now!" Kyle screamed in a garbled voice. Panicking, Reeni grabbed the first bottle she saw, wrapped her arms around it and carried it into the living room.

When she entered, Kyle was now sitting next to Felecia watching the television with her. Reeni hurried up to him and carefully placed the bottle on his lap.

He looked down at the bottle and then frowned at Reeni, "I said vodka you little idiot!" He yelled.

Reeni quickly backed away from him, bumping into the makeshift coffee table, "S-Sorry…" She whimpered quietly, cowering from Kyle as he rose from the couch.

"You're so goddamn stupid!" He shouted. Reeni quickly shielded her face with her arms just as Kyle started to raise his fist.

-----

"A nice day…" Lianna muttered to herself as she wandered the now-empty corridors of the school fifteen minutes later, staring down at her schedule. "They should give out maps with this thing."

Meanwhile, Gohan was on the roof of the school, fumbling with his watch. He was late for his first class – he couldn't blame the bank though, it wasn't their fault they were being robbed. But he _was_ blaming Goten, who'd accidentally spilled soda over the watch, making the buttons sticky. So now the button to capsulized the costume didn't work as well as it used to, and as a result was making Gohan late. Finally, after ten minutes of fumbling, the unnecessarily colourful costume disappeared and Gohan ran as fast as he could down the stairwell and into one of the corridors.

Lianna hadn't gotten much further and was beginning to get frustrated; she'd almost turned around to go home a few times. Suddenly, without any warning, she was shoved to the floor with great force, her notebooks flying in every direction.

"Ugh…" She groaned, holding her head. She sat up and was suddenly yanked to her feet.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Gohan cried out as he helped Lianna to her feet.

"S'okay…" She replied groggily. The young man quickly started picking up her things as she checked her schedule once again. Normally she would have stayed to thank him properly, but she was in a hurry.

Gohan handed her the books and she smiled up at him, "Thanks. I'm really sorry but I have to go, I'm late for class." She didn't even give Gohan the chance to say anything before she continued on her way.

"Hm…did she even recognise me?" Gohan asked himself. He sure recognised her, who wouldn't? There couldn't possibly be anyone else on this planet as good looking as the girl he saw in Bulma's living room. "Wonder what class she's got…" He paused and thought for a moment before it hit him, "class!"

"And it was in 1849 when…" Mr. Felder, the English teacher began, which caused most of the class to space out immediately. Gohan had been in the class for about twenty minutes, he had gotten into trouble for being late and had received detention for it. Chi-Chi wouldn't be happy but he did have to stop that gang at the bank, so he had good reason, but he just couldn't tell the teacher what it was. He glanced over at Videl, who was watching him scrupulously, he grinned and gave her a small wave, which earned him a sharp glare in return. Just then, the door opened, drawing the attention of the whole class.

Lianna sheepishly peered into the room, and over at Mr. Felder, "Uh…Mr. Felder?"

The teacher sighed and walked over to her, "Yes?"

"Um…my name's Lianna Briefs, I started today and your class is meant to be my first…"

"Well you're late." Felder replied, folding his arms across his chest, he really did have enough of all these students coming in late all the time.

"I know, I got kind of lost…" she replied quietly.

The teacher sighed again and nodded as he stepped aside to let Lianna in, "Alright, just don't do it again. Come in and introduce yourself to everyone."

Introduce herself? She didn't know she'd have to do that! She didn't know if it was a good idea to let people know who her mother was…then again he did tell her to introduce herself, so it would be his fault if she got any problems. She walked to the center of the class and looked around at all the faces that were staring at her. Felder shut the door and leant against it, watching her.

"Uh…hi," Lianna started shyly, which was a surprise to her for she was not usually this shy, "my name's Lianna Briefs and I-"

Everyone in the class seemed to simultaneously blink in disbelief. Gohan was more stunned than anyone, how could he not have recognised her?

"Lianna?" He called out, almost leaping down towards her. Felder sighed irritably and frowned at him.

"Gohan, sit down and be quiet or you'll have detention tomorrow as well." Now it was Lianna's turn to be shocked.

"Yes, sir…" Gohan said and sat back in his seat, keeping his eyes on Lianna, who stared back at him. Could it be _Son_ Gohan, Goku's kid? She blushed heavily when she'd remembered the thoughts she'd had about him when they met in the living room a week ago.

-----

Again, Reeni found herself sobbing in her darkened room. If she were older, she would hate her room; her house, her mother and maybe even her own existence. But thanks to the wonders of childhood innocence she knew the emotion "hatred" as well as she knew what it was like to live in a clean house. As dank and disgusting as her room was Reeni preferred it to the rest of the house, mainly because Felecia and Kyle wouldn't bother looking for her, they'd wait until they came across one her and then choose whether or not she deserved punishment for whatever reason they could dream up.

Things were always worse when Kyle was around though. Sure Felecia would hit Reeni for doing practically nothing but Kyle would hit her for doing even less. He was much more violent than Felecia, and a lot stronger too, it was only when he hit Reeni did she develop dark, long-lasting bruises.

"Reeni!" Kyle's slurred voice called out from the living room. Due to thin walls and ceilings, having conversations with people in different rooms was pretty easy.

"Quit y'r whinin' an' get here…!" Reeni's name must have been the single most used word in that house, they were forever calling her to do things for them.

Reeni didn't feel one way or the other about it, she didn't like being their proverbial slave but then again she didn't hate  
doing what they told her to do. It was all she'd ever known. Reeni quickly wiped her eyes and got to her feet, she hurried as fast as she could out of her room, down the stairs and into the living room.

Kyle just looked at her and tossed a dusty rag in her direction, "Clean this place up a bit."

Felecia scoffed, not taking here eyes off the TV, "She's only two, the kid's too dumb to clean properly."

Reeni didn't like being called dumb, it seemed that to everyone around her she was 'too dumb' to do anything and that the only was to get any approval was to show she could do something right, so she picked up the cloth and started dusting  
everything within her reach; she dusted the floor, the walls, even the coffee table – she was extra-careful with that – until the only things left were the television and its stand.

Reeni smiled and waddled over to it, being careful not to get in Felecia or Kyle's way. She sat on the floor and happily dusted the stand, which was pretty flimsy, but she was cautious with it. Then she moved up to the television itself. Getting to her feet, Reeni's eyes widened as she suddenly lost her balance. Felecia and Kyle watched in horror as Reeni  
stumbled forward and fell onto the TV, which in turn crashed to the floor after the stand buckled underneath it.

Silence. For an excruciating amount of time nobody said anything. Reeni stared wide-eyed down at the now-broken television set, her body was frozen to the spot and her mind was a flurry of thoughts and concerns. Well…there  
was only the one concern – what the two on the couch would end up doing to her because of this.

"That's it!" Kyle roared suddenly, making both Reeni and Felecia jump in fright. Reeni slowly looked over at him, knowing he was yelling at her.

He glared back and jabbed an unwashed finger in her direction. "I'm gonna get rid of you for good!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

Lianna sighed and opened the door to the English classroom. Mr. Felder had been very kind in giving her detention on her first day in school. It wasn't because she was late, he forgave her for that _because_ it was her first day, instead she got it for not paying attention in class. If she wasn't whispering to Gohan, whom she had chosen to sit beneath, then she was daydreaming. Unfortunately Felder caught her whispering to her old friend, which landed her the detention she was about to attend. Felder was sat behind his desk sorting through papers and Gohan had already arrived, he was sweeping the floor by the top desks.

"Late for detention as well as class, well…at least you're consistent." The teacher sighed sourly.

Lianna shut the door and kept her eyes on the floor. She couldn't believe she was in trouble on her first day, what would Bulma say?

"You'll be washing the chalkboard." Said Felder as he got to his feet and went to a filing cabinet in the corner at the front of the class. There was a bucket and a sponge sitting under the board, just waiting for Lianna. She sighed again and put her books down before going over to the board, which was absolutely covered in writing.

"How do I get the parts I can't reach?" She asked, looking over at Felder, who didn't even glance back at her when he answered.

"Get a chair."

Gohan yawned as he swept. He knew Lianna'd come into the room, but he also knew if he stopped to look at her he wouldn't be able to look away again. But surely, he thought, one look wouldn't do any harm. So that's what he did, he leant against the broom he was using and looked down at Lianna, who was scrubbing the chalk off the board with the wet sponge. He smiled and watched her, he used to think Videl was pretty but Lianna was in a whole different league, different game – different ballpark even. He was sure that she was a close contender to Bulma for the title of 'Most Attractive Woman In The World'; she definitely had his vote.

She was perfect, from her hair that shone and bounced in a way he had never seen before on anyone to her hourglass physique, which sent many thoughts and feelings racing through his mind and body. She bent down to wet the sponge again. Gohan just stared, nearly drooling, and wished he had the right to touch her, to hold her, instead of being made to watch her. It was distracting, not that he minded, but if he was with her then he could keep his mind on other things knowing that she was his, and that he could touch and watch her anytime he wanted. He suddenly remembered that he was meant to be sweeping and, afraid he would be caught, quickly looked around for Felder. He found him, leaning against the filing cabinet he was searching through not a minute earlier watching Lianna just as he was doing.

Felder's opinion on Lianna was no different than Gohan's, maybe a little more adult…well okay, a _lot_ more adult and certainly more perverted, he stared at her legs and backside just wishing the school had a stricter uniform code, even if it was just for the girls. He also wished he was a few years younger; he would definitely stand a good chance of bedding her if he was.

Gohan frowned, he knew he shouldn't be angry, Lianna wasn't his girlfriend or anything, but he also knew that Felder had no business in staring at her like that. He had to do something; it was disgusting to see a man of Felder's age – early thirties – ogling a girl of seventeen.

"Uh…" Gohan started, struggling to think of a reason for Felder to look away, "M-Mr. Felder,"

"What is it?" The teacher answered, still staring at Lianna's backside.

"I just saw a rat…" This was something that would have made most teachers in that school leap up to the top desk with something in their hands to smash the poor creature with, but not Felder. He just stayed by the cabinet, not budging an inch or even glancing in Gohan's direction.

"Very good…you…you can go now, Gohan."

Gohan sighed and leant the broom against the wall before hurrying down to the classroom door, "C'mon Lianna," he said. Lianna was about to place the sponge back in the bucket when they were interrupted.

"Not you, Lianna. You were late, so you stay longer." said Felder quickly proclaimed.

Lianna wanted to protest, but she knew she'd probably get in more trouble if she did. Gohan watched as she went back to scrubbing the board.

"Well?" Felder asked, his attention on Gohan now. "What are you waiting for?"

"Nothing I guess…" The young man muttered as he left the classroom. Lianna cursed under her breath as she tried reaching the only piece of writing left on the board, and it was out of her reach.

"Now, now, Lianna – watch your language. Here, use this." Lianna stopped and looked over at him as he brought over a wooden chair and set it down next to her.

"Thanks…" She mumbled as she stood on the chair. Felder grinned and watched. Unbeknownst to her one of the four legs was purposely cut shorter than the rest, so as she reached to scrub the chalk off the board, the chair wobbled and fell from under her feet. Lianna cried out in surprise as she fell backwards and landed in Felder's arms. He simply smiled down at her.

"Uh…thanks…again," she said quietly, her face reddening slightly.

"Oh…it's ok," the teacher replied, holding onto her. Lianna stared up at him and blushed heavier, she could swear his grip on her was getting tighter.

"You can…you can let me down now, sir." She said, trying to move.

Gohan, meanwhile, hadn't left the corridor or even the vicinity of the doorway. He glared at Felder through the glass porthole in the door. He had no idea the man was so…perverted, but now that he did know he had to do something to get Lianna away from him before he did something they'd all regret.

"Uh si-sir…" Felder's grip had gotten even tighter, it was like he was…groping her? Lianna's eyes widened and she was about to pull her hand back to slap him in the face before Gohan walked into the room.

"Lianna, your mom's here, she wants to see you." Felder's attention snapped over to Gohan again and he quickly dropped Lianna, who landed skilfully on her feet. She glared at Felder and pushed past him before picking up her books and hurrying over to Gohan, they both left and Lianna shuddered in disgust.

"I can't believe he…he felt me up!" She yelled angrily. "This is the last time I wear cycling shorts to school!"

-----

Reeni sat outside in the back yard, picking at the long, dead grass. She sighed and wondered why she hadn't had a beating for breaking the television, she'd had the living daylights kicked out of her for a lot less than that. It was a welcomed change though. She glanced back at the kitchen window as a beer bottle smashed through it and shattered against the patio. There was an argument, as usual, probably about Reeni.

"We can't do that!" Felecia screamed. "I hate the bitch but not enough to kill her!"

Kyle cried out in anger and slapped her hard in the face,"We can and we will!" He roared.

Felecia stumbled back, holding her face. She glared at him and threw another bottle at him, "No! We'll just dump her…yeah, we'll dope her up and leave her somewhere far from here."

Kyle dodged the projectile and quickly gave it, dumping the child _would_ be a lot easier than just killing her.

-----

Fresh air whipped through Lianna's long luxurious hair as she and Nimbus, along with Gohan, zipped through the clouds at the kind of speeds that would give normal people haemorrhages. She sat with her legs crossed and wasn't even holding onto the fluffy yellow cloud, her sweater flapped loosely as if in a woollen, jumper-y panic. She looked over at Gohan and smiled, he was flying the way he always did and had allowed Lianna to sit on Nimbus purely because it was the gentlemanly thing to do. She'd thanked him several times for rescuing her from Felder, she didn't even want to think about it, it made her sick just doing that. Suddenly there was a shrill alarm that made Gohan, and Nimbus along with him, stop.

"What is it?" Lianna asked, then blinked, as Gohan said nothing but instead swiftly pressed a button on a device on his wrist. There was a puff of pink smoke and Gohan's clothes were quickly changed from his long-sleeved white shirt, red pants and black vest to the most horribly loud and vulgar costume Lianna had ever had the displeasure of seeing.

"Wait here." Was all he said before he sped down to the ground and towards the high-street jewellers that was sounding the alarm. He landed in front of a gang of about five burly men, all carrying duffel bags brimming with stolen goods. His cape billowed around him and he took a heroic pose, the sunlight gleaming off his day-glow orange helmet. Lianna floated down just enough to watch, but stayed high enough to keep out of sight. She had no idea that what she was about to witness would be the most painful thing she'd ever experienced up until now.

"Stop…uh…" Gohan still needed a lot more practice with his heroic phrases, "…thieves!"

"Oh how original," scoffed one of the criminals, "out of our way, bug-boy."

"Bug-boy?" Lianna snickered to herself.

Gohan frowned behind his visor, "I am The Great Saiyaman!"

Four of the five men laughed and almost fell about, "Wha…what's that? Singing Man?" One of them snickered.

One of the others shook his head, "No…no…it's Sillyman." They only laughed harder.

The fourth one, a lot slower than the others cocked his head and blinked vacantly, "…Susan?"

The other four roared with laughter, as did most of the street. Gohan was glad to have the helmet, they'd just laugh harder if they saw how much he was blushing.

He growled and angrily jabbed his index finger at the men, "Stop laughing! It's GREAT SAIYAMAN! I am the defender of justice!" he struck a pose worthy of Captain Ginyu himself, "protector of the weak! I triumph over evil…so uh…give yourselves up or you will get hurt!"

The men did little to conceal their amusement, but it was quickly cut short as Gohan proceeded to rip a lamppost up from the concrete sidewalk. They stared, dumbfounded, as he raised it above his head and brought it down upon them. They dodged successfully and stared down at the pole, which was now buried three feet into the road.

They screamed, dropped the bags and made a run for it down the street, right into the path of a yellow helicopter, which landed in front of them. A short, pigtailed figure leaped out and violently took down each thief in a matter of seconds.

"Videl…" Gohan groaned through his helmet.

Lianna watched the girl with interest. _She was in our English class… _she thought to herself.

Before she knew it Gohan had rocketed up to her, plucked her from Nimbus' back, and flew off into the sky with her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, wide eyed; this new situation was a little alarming.

"W-what's going on?" She asked frantically, the air rushing past her ears.

"Videl came, she always gets on my case whenever she gets a hold of me…well…Saiyaman. So this time I'm not giving her the chance."

-----

"How're we gonna do it?" Felecia asked quietly, sitting by the kitchen table, a bottle of whiskey in her hands. Kyle paced the room, racking his brains for an idea. "How're we gon-"

"I don't know!" He yelled. "I don't know…couldn't we give her some-"

"No! No drugs, it'd kill her."

"A little grass won't," Kyle retorted as he made his way outside. He pulled out a tobacco tin and went over to Reeni, who was still sitting in the grass and was obviously a little wary of the man.

"Get here." He ordered. Reeni stayed where she was.

"I said," Kyle growled through his teeth, he grabbed Reeni roughly by the arm and yanked her to her feet, "get here! Now, Reeni," she was surprised, she couldn't remember the last time he said her name without yelling it, "I've got some candy for you, ok? Eat it."

Kyle opened the tin and took out a small pinch of cannabis before holding it to Reeni's mouth. She didn't know what candy looked like – she'd never seen it before. She'd only heard about it on TV, and from what she heard, candy was good. So she smiled and opened her mouth. The drug was put in her mouth and she quickly chewed and swallowed the stuff.

-----

"So, uh…what made you want to be a superhero?" Lianna asked as she and Gohan flew over the clouds above the city.

"I think I just wanted to protect the city…I mean there are criminals everywhere and since there aren't any more threats to Earth I thought I could do some good by crime fighting." He shrugged. Lianna smiled. He was still the sweet boy she remembered, always thinking of other people's well being before his own. Seriousness then took over her smile.

"So...where did you get that God awful costume?" She asked in the kind of tone a parent would ask their teenager where they got drugs from.

Gohan blinked and looked at her, "God awful? What are you talking about? This costume's great! Bulma did a really good job."

Bulma? Her _mother_? _She_ made that…that…_thing_? Lianna was speechless; she thought that since Bulma was pretty much a style guru on top of other things she would know what looks good and what doesn't. And that Saiyaman costume just…doesn't

They began to slowly descend through the clouds. Capsule Corporation sat right beneath them. Gohan, or rather Saiyaman, landed on the sidewalk outside the building and let Lianna down. She shifted her books in her arms and smiled up at him.

"Thanks Goh-" she mentally kicked herself, "I mean, Saiyaman." _That was close…_she thought, it wouldn't bode well for their friendship if she accidentally blurted out his real name in public.

"Nothing to it, ma'am." Gohan replied, grinning. Lianna started to walk down to the front door of CC. She turned around and waved.

"See you at school!" _Dammit! _She yelled in her head. Even Gohan flinched at the mention of school. He glanced around, saw that no one had heard, and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Sorry." Lianna said sheepishly.

Gohan smiled and shook his head, "It's alright, don't worry. See you again!"

Lianna watched as he took off and disappeared into the distance, with Nimbus catching up behind. She turned again and entered the house. Bulma was in the living room waiting for her, she quickly got to her feet from the couch and went up to her daughter, "Where were you?"

Lianna walked into the living room and placed her books on the coffee table, "Was late for class, got detention. But first of all…what the hell did you do to Gohan?"

-----

The streets were filled with blue/grey smog as Kyle's rusted old red Saab trundled painfully along, with Kyle and Felecia inside looking around for a decent place to drop off the now-stoned Reeni. She sat slumped over in the back of the car; with each turn they took she let out a giggle. There were no seatbelts in the vehicle so she rolled forward and off the seat when Kyle violently braked to avoid a car at a cross-section. A long string of vicious curses spat from his mouth and he made several hand signals at the other driver, who returned the gestures and carried on his way. Kyle growled and continued on down the road.

"Where are we gonna dump her?" Felecia sighed. She wasn't regretting the decision, she was actually looking forward to doing it – she was just getting bored with driving around so much.

"I have no idea…" They turned into a street with huge buildings; they had obviously driven so far they'd ended up in the rich part of the city. The car began to cough and wheeze, the exhaust backfired and the fuel meter dropped to the large E. "Dammit…we have to dump her here. We're running out of gas." Felecia nodded and, as Kyle stopped, exited the car.

She opened the rear door and reached in. Reeni was yanked from the floor, still in a drug-induced stupor, and dragged to the sidewalk. In silence Felecia dragged her daughter down the path to the front door of a large yellow building, the largest one in the street.

-----

Gohan grinned to himself and changed his clothes back to normal as he left the city's airspace. He whizzed over the mountains, lakes, forests and dinosaurs before landing in front of his house. Goten was outside, playing with a small purple lizard he'd found. When he saw that his big brother had arrived, he grinned and let it go. The poor lizard frantically scampered away as quickly as it could.

"Gohan!" He cried excitedly, running over to him. Gohan smiled and patted him on the head.

"Goten! Dinner's ready!" Chi-Chi called from in the house. She opened the front door and smiled when she saw Gohan. "Oh hi Gohan, how was school?"

Gohan grinned and made his way into the house, "It was great! Lianna was there too!"

His mother blinked in disbelief. Lianna was here? "You mean Lianna from the future?"

"Yeah! She came back about a week ago, but now she's going to school." He dumped his satchel in the living room and sat on the couch.

"That's nice…guess it would explain why you're so late." His mother pondered.

"Uh…not exactly."

"Oh…then why _were_ you late?" Gohan sighed. He never could keep anything from his mother and he could certainly never lie to her, and not just because she could tell when he was lying or keeping anything from her, "Uh…I was late for class."

"What? Why on Earth were you late?"

"There were these robbers and-"

"That silly Saiyaman thing again? Oh Gohan…why can't you put your education first?" The boy sighed and was about to answer when Chi-Chi left the room. Whenever she did that it was the end of any conversation they were having. She was the kind of woman who had to have the last word, Gohan hated it as he could never get his opinion or point of view across, but he lived with it – he knew she couldn't find it in her to ground him anymore, especially since the Cell Games. He sighed again, this time it was a happy sigh, he couldn't wait to see Lianna the next day. He just hoped Felder would have gotten those sick intentions out of his mind. Or else, he mused, Saiyaman would have to pay him a visit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

"Come again?" Bulma asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"What the hell did you do to Gohan? That costume is just awful but he loves it!"

Bulma laughed and shook her head, "If he loves it so much, what's the problem?"

"It's disgusting! Even someone who's colour-blind would be repulsed," Lianna replied, slumping down onto the couch.

Bulma cocked an eyebrow and looked down at her, "Oh, I'd like to see you do a better job."

No sooner than she had hit the couch, Lianna shot straight back up, a wide grin on her face, "Okay!"

Two hours later, and Lianna pushed two pieces of A3 paper aside. Underneath them sat a blueprint of Gohan's Saiyaman watch. Lianna looked around the lab, she knew exactly what to do – it wasn't just Bulma's looks she'd inherited – but the problem was finding all the stuff she needed. This lab was considerably different from the one in her time. After some rummaging she managed to find a suitable circuit board, transistors and so forth.

A quarter of the night was spent fiddling with, wiring and re-wiring the circuits for the new device she was making. She had to get help from Bulma for the plastic mould, having never used one of those machines before, but when she was done she installed the wiring, leaving enough space for a modified capsule and two watch batteries. Lianna grinned and carefully placed her creation down on the table. All that was left to do was to make a second watch and then onto the costumes.

Another quarter was spent making the second watch, she constructed it quicker than the first one but she spent time personalising the mould a little. The costumes took the rest of the night to do though, but once she'd finished the final designs, cutting and sewing the material and adding finishing touches, it was easy to see why she thought it was worth staying up until twelve in the morning.

-----

Reeni giggled and leant against the door she was sitting in front of; she watched the rusty old car pull away down the street. A cold breeze swirled around her and sent a shiver down her spine. It was getting dark and she wondered when her mother would come back to fetch her. But, strangely, she wasn't worried, she was quite happy to sit there on a stranger's doorstep and watch a tiny ladybug scuttle across the concrete and over her leg.

"Hi bug!" She murmured cheerfully, and reached down to pick it up. The insect, seeing Reeni's hand lower down on top of it, quickly unfolded its wings and flew away. The young girl pouted and watched it drift away with the wind.

Ten minutes passed and the drug Kyle had given Reeni had completely worn off. It was darker now and it was eerily quiet, only the faint sound of distant cars reached Reeni's ears. The night got colder; she wrapped her arms around herself and trembled from the freezing temperatures. It slowly began to dawn on her that her mother wasn't coming back. She had been left there. Alone. In the dark. Reeni's quiet sobbing accompanied the far-away cars as the only noise audible in the streets that night.

-----

The next morning, sunlight flooded into Lianna's room, waking the sleeping princess. She sat up and yawned loudly before rubbing her eyes. Today would be an exciting day for her. Today would be the day she would reveal herself to Gohan as…_Damn,_ she thought, _I still have to come up with a superhero name! _It didn't bother her too much though – she had all day to think it up.

"Lianna!" Bulma called from the foot of the stairs. "Breakfast!" With lightning speed Lianna ran from her room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. She was still in her nightie, there was plenty of time to get dressed for school, but with Vegeta and Trunks around breakfast would last mere minutes. So she had to get hers when she could. Nearly half of it had already gone, so Lianna dived in and joined in the morning battle for food.

Five minutes later, breakfast was over. Lianna walked into her room and pulled off her food-stained nightdress, tossing it in her laundry basket. She showered before quickly changing into a pair of hipster jeans and a sky blue tank top. She grabbed her new book bag, along with her two gadgets, and exited the room once more.

"I'll see you guys after school!" She called to the rest of the family as she went towards the door. Bulma and Trunks called their goodbyes, Vegeta grunted, and Lianna opened the front door, tripped, landed hard on the ground and stared at the small red-haired child that was lying on the doorstep.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, scrambling to her feet. Reeni slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She yawned and blinked sleepily as she slowly remembered where she was. Lianna stared and watched as the toddler's eyes welled and burst into tears. The teenager bent down and scooped the child up in her arms, trying in vain to console the girl, who was now wriggling violently and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"What's going on out there?" Bulma asked, rushing through the living room to the doorstep. She froze and stared at the little girl in Lianna's arms. "Who's that?"

"I…I don't know," Lianna answered, "I just tripped over her. Look, you take her mom," she said, handing Reeni over to Bulma, "I have to get to school and I don't want detention again." The elder Briefs watched as her daughter pulled a capsule out of her bag, tossed it into the road, got into the car that appeared and drove away. Reeni, by now, had calmed down a little and was wiping her eyes with her tiny hands. Bulma looked down at her and sighed quietly before taking her inside.

-----

Thankfully, Lianna didn't get detention for being late, and nor did Gohan. Felder didn't say a word to either of them, which could only be described as a good thing, and they were _very_ relieved when the bell rang.

Later on in the day, they had gym – it was the perfect opportunity for Lianna to swap Gohan's old watch for the new one she'd made the previous night. All she had to do was sneak into the boys' locker room and find Gohan's bag. But that was proved easier said than done as, as they all stood in the gym warming up, who should walk in but Felder himself. Lianna instantly groaned and wished she'd worn leggings or anything other than the short-shorts she was wearing right now. She looked over at Gohan, who was frowning at Felder. He glanced at her and softened his look a bit, he mouthed _don't worry _and went back to his warm up exercises.

"Okay class!" Felder called out, his voice bouncing off the gym walls, "Mr. Johansen is sick again today, so I'm taking over for him." Lianna groaned again, louder this time. Even Felder heard her, but he said nothing. As Lianna stretched her arms over her head, she overheard a conversation going on behind her between two other girls.

"You know what I heard?"

"No, what?"

"I heard that Mr. Felder spikes some of the teachers' coffee, to make them sick…"

"Why would he do that?"

"Well…I also heard he likes to watch girls…"

"Oh God, you mean he's a perv?"

"Yup, or at least that's what the rumor says." Lianna laughed bitterly to herself, _it's more than a rumor…_she thought

."Start getting the baseball equipment!" Felder ordered. The class did as they were told, but Lianna stayed behind, doing her best to gather the nerve to even go near the teacher. As Felder was glancing from one girl to the other, he looked over at her and noticed she was having problems of some sort, after a taking a few seconds to absorb the short-shorts and the full length of her legs he decided to go up to the girl and hoped she wouldn't be holding a grudge from the day before. "Uh…Lianna? Are you okay?"

Lianna forced a smile and looked up at him, "Yes…just fine…" she said through gritted teeth, "it's just…uh…I need to go to the bathroom."

Felder blinked and glanced over at the other students, "But you've only just started class…"

"Yeah I know," Lianna quickly interrupted, "it's…a girl thing."

"Oh…in that case go ahead." The young girl forced another smile that was, this time, obviously fake, and quickly hurried towards the girls' locker room.

Lianna pulled her bag out of her locker and rummaged through it before picking out the two watches. She recognised hers, because she'd made it look slightly different to Gohan's, so she put that one back and took the other one with her as she dashed out of the one locker room to the other. The only problem she had now though was finding the right bag.

"Only one thing for it…" She sighed before starting to rummage through the bags. She found the usual things – schoolbooks, mobile phones, wallets, computer games magazines, car magazines, porn magazines, pictures of Bulma…wait, what? Lianna looked for a nametag on the bag she was searching through, there was none. She looked at the pictures again and shuddered in disgust when she tried peeling one off the other.

Knowing this was definitely not Gohan's bag, she dropped the pictures back into it and moved on to the next. She knew this one was Sharpner's, as it had his name written all over it in black marker. But she decided a quick look wouldn't do any harm. She unzipped the bag and pulled out a binder, which she opened and, upon seeing the myriad of pictures of Videl, giggled. There were tons of them; there was even an A4 collage of Videl made out of Videl pictures. But the cutest one, she thought, was one of Videl and someone else but Sharpner had glued a picture of himself over the guy who was with Videl in the picture. Lianna giggled again and put it back.

She opened the next bag and rummaged around. There was a picture, or at least something that felt like a picture, at the bottom. She pulled it out and her jaw dropped as she discovered they were pictures of none other than _Vegeta_. She wanted to laugh, she wanted to laugh _so hard, _but was too stunned to do anything other than stare at the photos. They were ones of Bulma and Vegeta in the city, but Bulma had been cut out of the picture. Lianna shoved them back in the bottom of the bag. She didn't even want to know if any of them were stuck together.

The next bag she opened was, to her relief, the right one, because Gohan's waistcoat was at the top and, as Lianna looked through the bag, she found a picture of Goku and Chi-Chi, with a photo of Goten paper clipped onto it. She quickly found the watch, but as she pulled it out of the bag, something else came with it. Again Lianna found herself wanting to laugh as the image of a cartoon bear stared at her from the seat of Gohan's boxer shorts. Her face reddened, not from embarrassment, but from trying to keep her laughter under control. To no avail, of course, as she let out a tiny snicker, which turned into an uncontrollable giggle. As she tried keeping as quiet as possible, she switched watches and left the locker room in a blur of black and purple. She knew she wouldn't be able to look at Gohan again without giggling even a little bit.

-----

The rest of the class, meanwhile, had set everything up and were waiting on Lianna to return so they could commence their game. Not like Felder cared though, what they did didn't bother him, as long as he could watch the girls. _Maybe I should do the swim-team next…_he thought to himself, a small smile crept over his face as he imagined the all-girl swimming team practising under his watch. He just wished he could get into the locker room. It almost made him want a sex change. Lianna hurried over to them and stopped next to Gohan, Felder saw her and blew his whistle.

"Okay class it's Girls vs. Boys. Sharpner, you'll captain the boys and Videl you'll captain the girls." He then took out a coin and flipped it. "Boys heads, girls tails!" He called out. The coin landed tails side up, meaning the girls would be batting first. Videl took the home plate and raised her bat ready to hit the ball clear of the pitch. Gohan grabbed a catcher's mitt and hurried as far opposite Videl as he could, knowing he was the only one besides Lianna who could catch a ball from Videl. Sharpner was pitching; once everyone had taken his or her place he threw the ball with as much force as he could muster. Predictably, Videl clubbed the ball and sent it, as she intended, out of bounds. As the ball sailed towards a home run, Gohan leapt high into the air and snatched the ball just as it edged towards the pitch boundaries. He landed with a grin on his face. Lianna snickered to herself as she watched Videl fume and storm off the base.

"Alright Gohan!" Sharpner cheered just before the ball blurred towards him and smacked him in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Videl sat on the bleachers and muttered to herself. How did Gohan catch that ball? And, more to the point, how did he jump so damn high? Can he fly or what? She sighed and watched Sharpner struggle to get to his knees, gasping for breath.

"Sorry!" Gohan called out. _He is pretty cute though, _she mused, _for someone as…dorky…as he is._ Suddenly her watch buzzed before ringing, she quickly answered.

"Hi Mayor, what is it?" The reception was fuzzy and static crackled noisily as the Mayor spoke.

"We've got…full-bl…gang-war…city center…need hel-" The connection cut out and Videl quickly jumped to her feet.

"Mr. Felder! I need to go!" She didn't give the teacher the chance to reply before dashing off down the filed, de-capsulizing her helicopter and jumping into it. Everyone watched as she took off, sending bits of loose grass and dirt flying all around. Lianna glanced around and noticed Gohan was missing. _Something must be happening…_she deduced. And so, while everyone had their backs turned to her, she darted off, zipping past Felder, who saw nothing and felt only a strong breeze. He guessed it was from the helicopter, so he took no notice.

-----

Back at Capsule Corporation Bulma had calmed Reeni down completely and bathed her. Now she was making her food, she looked like she hadn't eaten properly for a while. She stirred the noodles in the saucepan and left it to simmer while she checked in on Reeni, who was sitting in the living room watching television. She stared at it – she'd never seen a television so big before, or even one in colour. She almost believed there were actual people inside the big plastic box when she first saw it. She even went around the back to check. But it was a plasma television, so it was only a few inches thick, which amazed Reeni even more.

As she sat, pressing random buttons on the remote, Bulma sat next to her and watched the girl for a few seconds.

"Um…sweetie?" Reeni looked up at her, expressionless. Bulma quickly slid off the couch and knelt in front of her. "What's your name?" It took several seconds for Reeni to gather the courage to speak to this strange woman. But she'd been nice to her so far, even given her a bath, so Reeni saw no reason why not to speak to her.

"Weeni…" She murmured.

"Weeni?"

Reeni shook her head, "_Weeni_."

Bulma quickly realised her grammatical error, "Oh, I see. It's _R_eeni." The toddler smiled lightly and nodded.

Bulma shifted slightly and smiled at the young girl, "How old are you, Reeni?"

"Two." She replied, holding up four fingers. Bulma giggled and folded down two of Reeni's fingers.

"That's two, honey." Reeni said nothing. Instead she just examined her two fingers. Bulma got to her feet and picked her up, she carried the tot into the kitchen and sat her in Trunks' old highchair. Reeni looked around and marvelled at how clean and bright the place was, why was it so different from her old house? Bulma drained the water from the saucepan and served the noodles in a small bowl, she placed it in front of Reeni along with a fork. She picked the utensil up and stared at it.

"Wha' this?" She asked quietly, holding the fork up to Bulma.

"It's a fork, Reeni, you eat with it. Like this." She took the fork from Reeni and used it to twirl up some noodles. The girl watched intently and when it came to her turn to use the fork she'd gotten food everywhere. Bulma smiled and shook her head lightly. "Maybe I should cut it for you…"

-----

Having retrieved the watch from his bag and making his way to the school rooftop, Gohan strapped the device to his wrist and pressed the button. To his surprise it wasn't sticky anymore, it worked as if it was brand new. The pink smoke cleared and he felt that there wasn't something quite right with his outfit. _Where's my helmet? _He wondered. Suddenly he realised that his arms were bare, "What's going on?"

"Oh this is my idea." Gohan turned and saw Lianna fiddling with another watch.

"_Your_ idea? Pray tell me what you've done."

Lianna grinned and clipped her watch into place, "I've made you a new costume, that old green one was disgusting. So I got rid of it."

Gohan's eyes widened, "You what? I liked that outfit!" Lianna's grin slowly faded.

"D.M.Y, Gohan, sheesh." She muttered.

"So why are you up here?" The grin quickly returned on the teenage girl's face as she pressed the green button on her watch. In a puff of pink smoke her outfit was also changed. Gohan stared, speechless, his mouth almost hitting the floor. Lianna was now wearing a sleeveless leather top, gloves that stopped at her elbows and leggings – they were also made from leather – and her boots, which would have looked at home at a Harley Davidson workshop, came up to just below her knees.

"I'm your new partner!"

"Partner…?" He quickly snapped out of the trance he was in. "Um…ok, I guess…" He couldn't really say no, being the daughter of Vegeta he knew she was strong enough to look after herself, he just wished she hadn't gone and changed his costume without even asking. He looked down at himself and he had to admit, he did like this new outfit – he was now wearing a black muscle shirt and black pants, similar to training ones, along with the same white Saiyajin boots and gloves he wore as Saiyaman.

"But won't people recognise us?"

"Not if you turn Super Saiyajin."

Gohan blinked, "How'd you-"

"Mom told me." Beamed Lianna.

_Should've known she'd tell Lianna about everything that's happened since she left…_Gohan thought.

"Well what about you? You can't turn Super Saiyajin." Lianna's grin widened, there was something she wasn't telling. Suddenly, in a burst of power, Lianna's body flared in a glare of bright white light, causing Gohan to cover his eyes.

"You can look now." Lianna spoke up after several seconds.

Gohan unshielded his eyes and stared at her. The purple in her hair had disappeared, leaving her waist-length hair completely black, and her eyes were now aqua. He also sensed a huge spike in her power level, "What…? You've transformed, but your hair isn't gold…"

"Yeah, I'm sorta like a Super Saiyajin…but then again I'm not."

"Huh?"

Lianna sighed and placed her hands on her hips, "Basically, female Saiyajin's can't go Super because they don't have the right gene. But what they can do, if they train hard enough, is transform to something else…not quite Super Saiyajin, but with almost the same power. I've ascended…just not all the way."

Gohan nodded, partly in understanding, partly because he just wanted to get going, "Ok, can we go now? I'm pretty sure Videl's there already."

"Ok!" Lianna said excitedly. Gohan quickly powered up in a blast of golden light and took off with his new sidekick.

-----

"Get down!" Commissioner Leonard yelled as bullets flew over the heads of him and his officers. They ducked down behind their cars and prayed for help from Videl, the army – anyone! The one gang had fled, having been beaten by the remaining mob, who had the police pinned down at one end of the street. Whirring sounds came from above, they got louder and louder until everyone in that street could hear nothing less. A large yellow helicopter landed between the police blockade and the criminals, Videl leapt out and immediately the gang opened fire.

There was a whoosh of air and Videl opened her eyes again. In front of her stood a man, about five feet eleven or six feet tall, his long golden hair was spiked and he looked down at her with hard, piercing aqua eyes.

"You okay?" He asked, his voice low and meaningful.

She nodded slowly and he wasted not a second more before he sped from her into the firing line. Videl watched, expecting him to be torn to bits by the machine guns, but instead he disappeared. Suddenly one of the criminals was sent flying, as if pulled back by some immense bungee cord, and the man reappeared in his place. The two gang members on either side of this…this Golden Warrior raised their guns to assault him but in the blink of an eye they were sent crashing to the road.

"Golden Warrior…" She murmured, remembering that this wasn't the first time this vigilante had appeared. Then from the corner of her eye she saw the glint of sunlight against glass, one of the windows of the tenth floor in the building to her right was being pushed up. She then saw the business end of a Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher sticking out of the opening, aimed directly down at the Golden Warrior, "Look out!"

Up in the window, the thug with the R.P.G Launcher sneered to himself as he locked Gohan in the crosshairs of his weapon. There was, unexpectedly, an almighty sonic boom and he was sent sailing into the wall behind, along with large chunks of brick and glass. Shellshock settled in and he saw nothing except a shapely silhouette standing in the gaping hole in the side of the building. Once he regained control of his senses, the gangster slowly pushed himself up to his feet and glared at the silhouette, which, as his sight returned to normal, gradually turned into a young girl dressed in all black. She held his Launcher in her hand and wagged a finger at him, like a teacher scolding a student.

"S'not nice to point."

Gohan, being the target of a vicious dog-pile, powered up and with the strength of his aura alone lifted the twenty-something mobsters off him and scattered them around the street. Almost every window in the street exploded as something detonated in one of the buildings, causing fire to lap out into the street above their heads. The ground shook and rattled the bones of everyone in the vicinity. He watched as Lianna drifted down, a terrified fully-grown man dangling from her by his t-shirt. She landed next to him and grinned.

"My first baddie." She claimed with glee.

"What was that explosion about?" Gohan asked, before kicking a charging felon in the chest. Lianna shrugged and dropped the man she had been carrying; he immediately adopted the fetal position and trembled in terror.

"Dramatic effect!"

Gohan sighed; he would seriously need to go over the rules of superheroing with her.

-----

Bulma sighed and sat down on the armchair while Reeni slept on the couch. It'd taken her the best part of fifteen minutes to calm the young girl down. She'd gotten hysterically upset when she accidentally knocked her bowl from her highchair and broke it on the kitchen floor. First she just tried to get out of her chair, but as Bulma tried helping her she started screaming and crying as loud as she could, frantically trying to pull away from the chair and, it seemed, away from Bulma. _I have to check the boiler…_Bulma noted mentally, the kitchen had gotten pretty cold since she'd made food for her young guest. Through the hands and the kicking feet, she'd managed to pick Reeni up and hold her in a tight embrace; though she stopped fighting Reeni didn't stop crying. She trembled violently and Bulma only had one guess as to why she was like this.

Earlier on, just after Lianna left for school, Bulma took Reeni upstairs for a bath. She desperately needed it as well as some nice hot food. As she undressed and bathed the child, she realised that Reeni had been through a lot in her very short life. Bruises, cuts, burn marks and scars covered her tiny body, and the fresher ones visibly stung her as they were exposed to soap and water. She whimpered and shivered as the water started to get cold. After washing her hair Bulma plucked her out from the water and wrapped her in a towel, which Reeni loved. She giggled and hid in the folds of the towel, which made Bulma giggle herself. But there was a much more grim issue she had to focus on. Someone had obviously abused Reeni, physically and probably mentally as well, which would explain why she was hysterical when she broke the bowl – she was afraid that Bulma would hit her.

-----

Reporters swarmed the blockades that stood on either end of the street that was formally under siege by the gang war, Gohan had tossed the last of the criminals in the back of an armoured police van when one of the blockades gave way and numerous journalists with cameramen stampeded towards both him and Lianna, who was becoming increasingly used to this attention anyway.

Videl stood on the sidelines, waiting for a replacement helicopter. She narrowed her eyes at the pair in black and folded her arms across her chest. She hated people who interfered.

"Who are you?"

"What are your names?"

"How can you move so fast?"

"How're you so strong?"

"How can you fly?"

"Why are you in black?"

One microphone was suddenly thrust in Gohan's face, "Is it true you felt up Videl when you grabbed her?"

Gohan's face reddened and he babbled quietly. Lianna frowned deeply at the reporter, who quickly backed off. She realised that Gohan would never step forward and speak for them both, so she decided she would.

"Listen up people! Listen _very_ carefully, for I shall say this only once." The horde of journalists quickly hushed. "Our names are these: I am Omega Black and he," she pointed at Gohan, who was still red in the face, "is The Golden Warrior."

The silence was quickly broken with another barrage of questions from the throng. Before anything else could happen and to keep the air of mystery around them, the duo quickly took off into the sky, creating a ripple of gasps and "oo's" and "aah's."

"Well that was a very good first outing." Lianna grinned, flying beside Gohan.

"Yeah well…next time, don't blow anything up."

Videl watched them leave. She wasn't impressed by their flying, after all that Saiyaman guy could do the same thing, and there was nothing impressive about him…besides his strength, which these two seemed to have as well. She growled deeply and leant against a police car. Where was that damn helicopter?


	5. Chapter 5

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

That night, after Lianna had bored them to tears with retell after retell of her afternoon adventure with Gohan; Bulma, Lianna, Vegeta and Trunks sat around the kitchen table wondering what to do with their new guest.

"I say we get rid of her," Vegeta grumbled, "the last thing we need is another mouth to feed."

"You can't say that!" Said Lianna. "The poor kid's been abandoned!"

"Maybe her parents will change their minds and come back for her." Vegeta retorted.

Lianna frowned and sank in her seat, "Doubt it." She muttered.

"Lianna's right," Bulma sighed, "Reeni's got bruises and cuts all over her, she must have been abused by her parents."

Vegeta chose to say nothing – there was nothing he could say that would both express his opinion and keep him on everyone's good side.

"So what do we do?" Trunks asked, swinging his legs as they dangled from his chair.

"I guess we'll have to call the social services…she'll get adopted into a nicer family."

Lianna whined and stood up, "Can't _we_ keep her?"

"She's not a pet, Lianna." Bulma replied gravely.

The teenager walked to the kitchen door and stared sadly at Reeni, who was still fast asleep on the couch. She sighed and spun to face her mother, "But…but there's no family nicer than ours! We've got plenty of money and a house big enough to adopt a whole orphanage! Please mom…" She pleaded. "At least let her stay until we find her a good home…"

Bulma sighed and stared down at the table. Looking after Reeni would be nice, though, she missed babying Trunks and she never had a daughter. Not in this time anyway, "Alright," Lianna's saddened features brightened, "she can stay until we find her a decent home."

The young girl let out an excited squeal and grinned broadly, "You're the best!" Vegeta said nothing and Trunks, leaning back in his chair, groaned.

"Not another girl…!"

-----

Videl paced her room, angry and contemplative. _So The Golden Warrior's back huh? _She grumbled inwardly. _And now he's got a partner, this Omega Black woman. They must be up to something, why else would they be in all black? They can't be good news. _She almost wished Saiyaman had turned up instead of them, at least he was familiar territory. Growling in frustration she punched the bag that dangling from her ceiling by a thick chain, it broke off and slammed into the wall.

"Who do these people think they are? _I'M_ the crime fighter! They think they can just grab anything from a thrift store, put it on and start fighting bad guys! It's not that easy!" She sighed angrily and sat on her bed. _I'll get them…_she vowed, _…and then I'll expose them for whom they really are along with that Saiyaman dweeb, NO ONE muscles in on MY turf._

-----

The next day in school the classrooms were rife with gossip about what they saw on the news the previous night. Gohan and Lianna sat in Felder's class, listening to everyone talk about the strange new duo in the city.

"That Omega Black girl was _hot!_" Lianna blushed and giggled quietly as she overheard Sharpner. She'd heard quite a lot about them since she arrived in class, most of the girls thought that Gohan – or, rather, The Golden Warrior – was really dangerous looking and therefore very attractive. She didn't think Gohan had heard, it was either that or he purposely ignored it, probably so he wouldn't start to get a big ego. The teacher hadn't even arrived before, once more, Videl's wristwatch rang – the class hushed as she answered it.

"Yeah, Mayor?"

"Videl! One of the gang members from yesterday escaped and has got a hostage on top of Satan Towers!"

Videl sighed and nodded, "Be right there." She got to her feet and was about to leave when Felder hurried in. He placed an armful of files and notepads on the desk and turned to face Videl, "Why are you standing, Videl?"

The girl hurried down to him and tightened her pigtails, "Mayor just called." She replied. Felder nodded and stepped aside to let her pass. Videl hurried to the door, flung it open and sprinted down the hallway. Gohan watched her and purposely waited for Felder to begin speaking before raising his hand.

"What is it?" The teacher asked, annoyed.

"I uh…need to go to the bathroom, really bad."

"Alright! Just hurry up." Gohan nodded, got up, and ran out of the class. Just as he had been watching Videl, Lianna had been watching him. The second she felt his energy reach the other end of the corridor she spiked her own energy and lightly started tapping her foot. The faster and harder she tapped the more vibrations she sent through the ground, resulting in what seemed to the rest of the school as an earthquake. Amid cries and shouts of fear the class ducked under their desks, Felder too cowered beneath his own as the ground shook violently. Once the last of the students ducked their heads down she quickly floated up from her chair and down to the door. No one saw her, thankfully, and she sped down to the window at the end of the hall. She changed into her Omega Black outfit, opened the window and flew out, ascending up to the roof from the side of the building. She popped up in front of Gohan, who had just changed into his Golden Warrior outfit.

"C'mon, let's go!"

-----

Back at Capsule Corporation, Reeni was now awake and playing with Trunks. They were still in the living room, Lego strewn across the floor. Trunks had started to build a skyscraper out of multicoloured blocks, it was about a foot high but with the amount of Lego they had there it could easily grow another four. Reeni was just happy to stick random blocks and shapes together. She grinned triumphantly when she stuck a chair to what seemed to be a pair of wings and started making engine noises, flying her makeshift aeroplane around her head. Trunks watched her and giggled; to him she was pretty cool for a baby, and very cool for a girl.

Reeni blinked and paused.

She started to breathe deeply and wrinkled her nose. Trunks watched as she breathed deeper before sneezing loudly, covering his Lego building in a thin layer of frost.

He stared, wide-eyed, at the plastic structure, as it twinkled under the light of the living room. He turned to Reeni, who was rubbing her nose. She looked at him and smiled before going back to playing with her plane. The young demi Saiyan slowly wiped the frost off the skyscraper and snickered to himself. Now she was even cooler than before. He laughed quietly at the little pun he just made, and decided that this would be their little secret.

-----

"I don't know what to do," Bulma sighed into the phone, "what do you think?"

Chi-Chi paused on the other end of the line, "Well…you told Lianna you'd keep her until you find her a home, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well I think that's what you should do. Keep to your word."

Bulma lightly rubbed her forehead and sat by the kitchen table, "I know, but I'm not sure how long it'll take us to find a home for her, and I can't look after her all the time. Capsule Corp. has been having a few problems from competitors."

"Competitors? I thought Capsule Corp. was the biggest company around."

"SilverTech Industries is getting almost as big, they're basically moving in on our territory and it's costing us money. I can't look after Reeni twenty-four-seven _and_ keep our company from losing any more money or worse, losing contracts."

"Couldn't Vegeta or Lianna look after her?"

Bulma laughed out loud. Vegeta doing anything remotely parental was as alien as he was, "Vegeta wouldn't know what to do, nor does he have the patience and Lianna's in school now, so she can't do it."

"Well Vegeta's going to have to learn. If you look after Reeni you can be sure she's looked after properly until you find a home. You could at least hire a babysitter."

Bulma mulled over the thought of a babysitter and suddenly thought of something, "Well Chi-Chi, since you're home all the time…"

"Oh no! I know what you're trying to do, Bulma Briefs! I look old enough as it is, another baby will only put more wrinkles on."

"But Chiiiiii…" Bulma whined.

"No, get Vegeta to do it. It's about time he looked after a child anyway."

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, she knew Chi-Chi was right…she just didn't want to have to force Vegeta into it and cause an argument, "Yeah…I know. I'll have a talk with him, thanks Chi. I have to go, I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what he said."

Chi-Chi said her goodbye and Bulma hung up. Maybe it would be a good thing to keep Reeni after all, just for the time being though.

-----

Videl slammed hard against the concrete roof of the luxurious Satan Towers hotel, her right shoulder bleeding profusely. She held her wound and slowly got to her feet. The thug who had escaped jail held his pistol aimed directly at her, the barrel was still smoking from the gunshot, and he held a bellboy in his other arm.

"You know you'll be beaten eventually…" Videl snarled. The gangster just glared at her.

"The next one'll be between your eyes." He threatened. She growled and stared him down, just waiting for an opening to present itself. A sudden gust of wind behind her made her shiver and then wince from the pain in her shoulder.

"So…what's up?" Lianna chirped cheerfully. Videl glanced back at her and Gohan and groaned. The criminal's eyes widened and without thinking, quickly fired a shot straight at Gohan's face. He deftly caught the projectile and tossed it away as if he were getting rid of a pebble. The armed man panicked and started emptying the clip in Gohan's direction. Not one even grazed the golden-haired teenager.

Feeling himself lose control of the situation, the mobster threw the gun at Videl, who caught it, and shifted closer to the edge of the 110-story building.

"Stay back! I'll throw him off!" The bellboy yelped in protest and began weeping uncontrollably.

"Listen," Videl started, before Lianna cut her off.

"Go ahead."

Gohan quickly looked down at her, "What? Are you nuts?"

"Let him do it," Lianna replied coolly.

"I knew it! You two ARE up to no good!" Videl yelled after spinning around to face them. "You're willing to risk an innocent life!"

Lianna cocked an eyebrow at her and scoffed, "Listen here, devil-in-pigtails,"

Videl frowned, "What did you call me?"

Lianna ignored her and carried on, "There _is no_ risk. Both Goh…Golden Warrior and I can _fly_."

"It's a trick! Like that Saiyaman jerk!"

"Hey I'm not a jerk!" Several seconds had passed before Gohan, and the two girls, realised what he'd said. Lianna frowned and punched him in the arm.

"Oh so _you're_ Saiyaman? Great…just great! I'm sure everyone sleeps easy at night knowing they're being protected by some guy in kabuki and his trashy little sidekick!"

"Oh you did not just call me trashy!"

Feeling somewhat left out by all this, the thief slowly edged away from them, trying to get to the exit which wasn't too far away from them. Videl growled and whizzed around on her heel.

"Stay there! I'm not done with you!" She was quickly tugged back by her shirt.

"I'll teach you to call _me_ trashy you little plebeian!"

"Little _what?_" Videl promptly pulled away, turned, and tackled Lianna to the floor. Gohan helplessly watched them tussle, and then remembered they were supposed to rescue the bellboy and recapture the gangster. He looked over at them, and saw that they too were watching the girls fighting and cursing at each other.

The gang member looked at Gohan and suddenly let his hostage go, "You know…I'll just give up, I…I don't wanna get on the bad side of either one of those two."

Gohan couldn't help but let out a quiet snicker, "Good idea."

About three minutes later, the escaped felon was sitting on the concrete floor, his hands tied behind his back by some wire Gohan had found, he stood behind the man, watching Lianna fix her hair.

"You okay?"

Lianna glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "I'm fine. What, you think a scuffle with that," she motioned to Videl, "is enough to affect me at all?"

"Well it's affected your hair…"

"Shut up." And with that, she went off to call the police.

Videl, sitting not too far from them, watched the pair with a hard steely glare. She cradled her bleeding shoulder and tried thinking of the best way to get back at them, especially that Omega Black. She didn't like her at all, and not just because she tore her shirt. _Hm…_she thought. _I doubt it'd work…but it's worth a try. _She watched Lianna leave, got to her feet and went over to Gohan.

"You're pretty good," she complimented, "so you're identities a secret?" Gohan looked down at her and nodded lightly.

"Y-yeah…no one knows…"

"By the way, Gohan, how'd you sneak out of class?" she asked casually.

"Oh, I said I had to go to the bathroom…so I better get back soon." Videl grinned and punched the air.

"I KNEW IT!" She cried with glee.

Gohan blinked, "Huh?"

"Quit pretending! You're Son Gohan! And that trollop is Lianna Briefs, I bet!" Gohan took a few steps back and bumped into someone. He turned and saw Lianna glaring up at him.

"Idiot!"

"Sh-she…tricked me!"

-----

Trunks stepped back from his creation and grinned, he'd made a skyscraper from almost every block he had. The only ones he didn't use were the one's Reeni was playing with. He looked down at her as she played with two Lego men, making them walk from the couch to the building and back again, pretending they were shopping or something along those lines. The phenomena that had taken place only minutes earlier hadn't happened again, which had disappointed him a little as he really wanted to see it again. He had questioned Reeni about it but she didn't know what he was talking about.

Bulma stood and stretched lightly. She'd been thinking about finding Reeni a home. Obviously she'd have to check the family and the house out first. Part of her wanted to get rid of Reeni, mainly because it wasn't fair on the child and she felt they couldn't pay her enough attention. She sure did miss having a baby in the house though, the memories of changing Trunks' diapers were still fresh in her mind and she sometimes wished that he was still like that, just so she could fuss over him. She went to the door and looked into the living room at Reeni and Trunks. A smile crept over her face as she watched them playing together. _They look so sweet together…_she thought.

"Alright you two, time to clean up."

Trunks looked back at her and whined, "But mom…" Bulma folded her arms across her chest.

"Now, Trunks." She said firmly. He nodded and sighed as he started to take apart his tower. "You too Reeni." Reeni, not forgetting her mother, but also deciding that Bulma had been more of a mother to her in two days than Felecia had been in two years, nodded and smiled. She liked being able to smile, and since she'd arrived at Capsule Corporation she tried to do is as much as she could. Bulma turned back into the kitchen and froze when Reeni finally answered.

"Okay mommy!"

_Mommy…_she actually called her "mommy." That one word churned Bulma's emotions like a spin dryer and she had a sudden change of heart. _There's no family nicer than ours…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

The wind whipped through Lianna's hair as she flew at top speed on top of Nimbus back to the school alongside Videl's stupid little helicopter. She glared down at the city below and wondered why the hell Gohan would want to go back with Videl instead of her. _What's so special about **her**?_

Gohan rode in Videl's helicopter, still in his Golden Warrior outfit. Videl glanced at him, trying to make sense of the whole situation. How could he fly? And how was someone as nerdish as him so strong? She'd seen him, as Saiyaman, lift cars, buses, giant boulders and the like with no effort whatsoever. It wasn't fair, she'd worked hard every day of her life to get to her physical peak and here comes this guy, waltzing into her life with more strength than anyone else she'd met. Though to be honest she didn't really know how hard he'd worked. He seemed to be stronger than her, so he could very well have worked harder than Videl to achieve such levels of physical condition. She hit the autopilot button and watched him as he stared, almost inanely, out the window. He didn't look half bad in that outfit though, and she definitely approved of the muscle he showed. Gohan blinked and looked at her reflection in the window.

"Why are you staring at me…?"

Videl shifted and folded her arms across her chest, "Why are you still in that get-up?"

"You can't answer a question with another question."

"That _is_ why I was staring at you, why haven't you changed?"

"Oh…" Gohan murmured, pressing a button on his watch. Videl coughed heavily and opened the window a little, letting out the pink smoke that had filled the cabin. But just before the air was completely clean, Gohan powered down, changing his hair and eyes back to their original colors and shape.

"Don't do that again in here." Videl warned as she shut the window again.

"Sorry…"

The girl turned back to him and blinked, "What happened to your hair?"

"What?"

"Your hair, it's changed…how did you do that?" Gohan mentally fell over himself trying to think of an excuse.

"Um…um, err…uhhhh…" He stammered. "I-it's a part of my costume! Yeah, whenever I change into my outfit my hair changes too." He stared at her, silently pleading for her to buy it. He let out a quiet sigh when she made a satisfied noise and leant back in her seat.

"Guess that explains how they did it in the Cell Games…"

"Huh?"

Videl glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "Don't you remember? Seven years ago, there were those blonde fighters; their hair was almost exactly like yours in that costume…only different styles. Dad _was_ right – it was a trick. And now I know how it was probably done."

Gohan wanted to tell her so badly that she was wrong, that it wasn't a trick…but he couldn't say anything, and even if he did, what could he have said?_ "Oh, by the way Videl, I'm part alien. My father, former world champion Son Goku, is from another planet that was destroyed by an evil changeling whom we fought and killed when I was six years old! Also, I was the one who defeated Cell and I was eleven years old when I did it."_ …Nah, she wouldn't believe him anyway. She'd just think he was nuts. "So, you're entering the Tenka'ichi Budokai tournament in a month's time, right?"

"What? The Tenka'ichi Budokai?"

"Didn't you know? They're bringing back the old tournament to find the "strongest under the heavens"! My dad was the last champion, and the one before that...don't know what he looked like...but his name was Son Goku..."

Gohan shifted nervously, "Y-yeah…I remember."

"Hm…" Videl paused, looked down at the console in front of her and pondered for a moment. "Same family name as you…not many people have family names these days." She slowly turned her head and looked at him. "I think this Son Goku is _your_ dad."

Gohan froze, panicking inwardly. He didn't know what to say or do. Jumping out of the door seemed a valid option. After all, he _could_ fly.

"Well?"

Gohan's panic became more frantic. _She's too smart…_he groaned to himself, "I uh…well, um…"

Videl laughed and cheered, "Scored again! Twice in one day!"

Gohan sighed in defeat and looked out at Lianna, who was glaring daggers, swords and broken bottles at them both. _If looks could kill…_

"So you're gonna enter right?"

He quickly turned back and stared at her, "What?"

"Oh c'mon, it'd be perfect! The last champion's daughter vs. the champion before that's son? There couldn't be a better match-up!"

"I…don't know Videl…"

Her face instantly soured and she shifted closer before jabbing him in the chest with her index finger, "You better! Or else I'm gonna tell everyone who you are."

Gohan backed away against the door, only to have Videl move even closer, "You mean…"

"Yes."

"…You'll tell everyone I'm Son Goku's son?"

She growled and jabbed him again, "No you jerk! I'm talking about Golden Warrior and Saiyaman!"

"Oh…"

"But if you enter, I'll keep your secrets."

"What about Lianna's?"

Videl frowned and moved away from him before sitting back in her seat, "What _about_ Lianna's?"

"I'll enter if you promise to keep Lianna's secret too."

Videl groaned in frustration and glanced away, "Fine…"

Gohan smiled and was about to thank her when she spun around and pointed her finger at him, "But in return for keeping trash-zilla's secret you have to teach me to fly!"

"But…but…"

"That's the price Gohan! If you don't teach me to fly before the tournament, I'm telling the whole city exactly who their precious Omega Black is."

-----

Later that afternoon, Gohan and Lianna were soaring over the ocean at lightning speed. Lianna hadn't spoken a word to Gohan since they got back from rescuing the bellboy and he couldn't fathom why. She glared down at the water, her head seething with resentment. Her friend looked at her and sighed. Why did she look so angry? Was she upset? If so what about? _Probably her fight with Videl…_he thought. He stared at her for several seconds, if she noticed then she made no sign that she knew, and it took a further few seconds for Gohan to finally speak up.

"Okay Lianna…what's wrong?"

The girl glanced at him and looked back down at the water, "What ever do you mean, Gohan?"

"You've had that look on your face ever since we helped Videl,"

"I'm not upset about that...that…horse, if that's what you mean!" She snapped irately.

Gohan blinked and raised an eyebrow. There was something to her voice, something he hadn't really heard before. Not from her anyway. She couldn't be jealous…could she? She sure did sound it, but why would she be? But before he could ask her about it, Master Roshi's island quickly zoomed up underneath them.

On the island, a small blonde girl was sitting on the sand, playing with a bucket and spade. She set the bucket down as she noticed two black spots on the ground. She stood up and watched as they got bigger and bigger until both Gohan and Lianna had landed, a few feet from her. Marron smiled and jumped up and down excitedly before running into the house.

"Daddy! Gohan's outside and he brought a lady friend!"

Krillin looked up from his rice ball and wiped his mouth, "Huh? Gohan?"

The rice cake quickly found its plate as he stood and hurried out of the house. He grinned and hurried over to his old friend. "Hey Gohan! What's up?"

Lianna stood and stared at the uniquely short man as he and Gohan quickly caught up, it was nice to have to look _down_ at someone for a change though. She leaned closer to Gohan and whispered, "Is that Krillin…?"

Gohan glanced at her and nodded lightly. "And…did that little girl call him _daddy_?"

Once Krillin went back inside to get the others, Gohan turned to her, "Yeah, after the Cell Games Krillin settled down. He stopped fighting and, when he stopped doing that, he stopped shaving his head."

Lianna nodded and smiled lightly, "It's an improvement…he looks cuter with hair."

Gohan, slightly taken aback, paused for two seconds before answering, "Er…well…I guess…" _Did she just say he looks cuter…?_ Just then a familiar laugh and voice made him turn his head. Master Roshi stood on the doorstep with Krillin behind him, he hobbled down off the porch and onto the sand.

"Heeeey, what brings you by…" it wasn't long before his aging, yet wandering eyes caught sight of Lianna in all her curvy goodness, "…and who's your friend?" he asked through a nearly-toothless grin. Without warning Lianna shot behind Gohan and peeked around his side.

"I don't remember him in my time," she muttered, "but I've heard a _lot_ about him…"

"Uh…Master Roshi, this is Lianna."

Krillin, sitting on the porch, stared hard at her, "Lianna… Oh! The little girl that came with Trunks?"

Finding enough confidence to put herself in full view, even with Roshi there, Lianna stepped out from behind Gohan and smiled, "Yeah, that's me…I came to live here since my brother seems to have things under control in our timeline."

"Well that's good," Krillin beamed, "you'll have to tell Trunks to come by sometime! It's been a while."

Gohan, through all the reminiscing, remembered why they came, "Well…anyway, we just came by to tell you guys about the tournament."

"The Tenka'ichi Budokai?" Master Roshi spoke up. "Wow…it's been ages, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm entering and I was wondering if you'd enter too, Krillin."

His old friend thought for a few seconds. "Hmmm…I don't know, how many people have you told about it?"

Gohan blinked, "Uh…nobody else yet. Why?"

Krillin laughed lightly and ran a hand through his hair. "Well…how about you not tell Vegeta and Piccolo, so I'll have a better chance of winning?"

"I can't do that…" Gohan replied, only to get an irritated sigh in return. "Oh c'mon Krillin, at least try!"

Marron smiled brightly and patted her father on the shoulder, "If you fight, daddy, I'll cheer for you!"

Krillin ruffled her hair lightly and smiled, "Thanks Marron…"

"You do know that the top five contestants win money." Gohan informed him.

"And just how much money do you win?" Said a rather unforgettable blonde woman as she stepped out onto the porch.

"Hey Eighteen!" Gohan grinned.

Lianna stared at her and let out a shrill scream before diving back behind Gohan, "ANDROID!"

Eighteen folded her arms across her chest and cocked an eyebrow at her. Gohan blinked and pulled the girl from behind him.

"Hey, hey…take it easy, she's not like that anymore," Krillin said, "in fact…" he blushed lightly and patted Marron's head gently. Lianna quickly glanced from Marron to Eighteen and, upon seeing they actually _were_ mother and daughter, calmed down.

"Oooohhhh, okay…" She still didn't like Eighteen though, due to the fact she was partly responsible for all of the destruction in her time. Her and that damn twin of hers. _But then again,_ she reasoned, _this isn't the same Eighteen…I guess I can't hold a grudge against her for something she did in a different timeline…_

Eighteen coughed and broke the slightly awkward silence that had seeped into the atmosphere, "Now how much money?"

Gohan stared at her feet, deep in thought, trying to remember the prizes."Let's see…" he started, scratching his head, "winner gets ten million Zeni…second place gets five million…third place gets three, fourth place gets two and fifth gets an even million."

Eighteen's veins and circuitry suddenly pulsed with something she hadn't displayed before – excitement, as she cried out,"Do it Krillin! I'll enter too!" Though coming from her, it sounded like an angry sort of excitement.

"Fine, fine…I will." Krillin sighed.

"Great!" Lianna chirped, "We'll see you guys at the tournament, okay?"

Krillin stood and nodded, "Alright."

"Don't forget to come by for visits…" Master Roshi chimed in, approaching Lianna, "I could give you…special training." It was a good thing he had his sunglasses on, no one could see that his eyes were on Lianna's chest and not her face. But even though no one could see, they all knew exactly where his eyes were resting. She backed away from him a little and placed her hand on Gohan's arm.

"Hm, interesting. I'll ask my _father_ first…how's that sound?"

Master Roshi, immediately knowing exactly what Vegeta would do to him, quickly cleared his throat, "Oh…th-that's okay Lianna, since you're Veg…V-Vegeta's daughter I'm pretty sure y-you don't need my training…!"

Lianna smiled and levitated a little, holding on to her friend's arm, "That's what I thought. Bye you guys!"

"Yeah, see you in a month!" Gohan smiled and waved as he floated up with Lianna. Master Roshi, Krillin, Eighteen and Marron waved and watched the two teenagers as they quickly took off into the horizon.

-----

Not even minutes had passed until they caught sight of The Lookout, it zoomed up to them and they quickly ascended the side of the great tower, passing Korin and Yajirobe in an enormous gust of wind.

"Yow! What was that?" Yajirobe cried out as he landed on his backside after being blown backwards, his bowl of noodles scattered everywhere. Korin, landing next to him, pushed himself up with his staff, pulled a noodle off one of his ears and walked to the edge of his platform. He looked up and stroked his whiskers.

"Hm…Lianna's back." He stated in his usual serene manner.

"Who?" His companion asked as he got to his feet.

"Lianna, Trunks' future sister."

"Oh…"

Dende stood at the edge his platform, staring out over Earth, surveying everything that was his to guard. He stepped backwards from the edge just as Gohan and Lianna rose into sight.

"Hey guys!" Dende greeted gleefully, happy to see his friends.

"Hey Dende, is Piccolo here?" Gohan asked quickly. It'd been so long since he last saw his best friend, at least four months, and he missed him terribly. Dende nodded and jabbed his thumb towards the building behind him.

"He's in his room, meditating I think."

"Oh…" Gohan replied, a little crestfallen, "best not to disturb him then, huh?"

"Why?" Piccolo asked as he stepped out of the palace-like structure.

Gohan grinned and waved over at him, "Hey Piccolo!"

The Namek smiled a little to himself. It was always nice to see Gohan. He wouldn't really consider Goku, Krillin, Tien and the others friends. They were more allies than anything else, but Gohan…Piccolo held him higher than the others, much higher. Yes, he respected Goku and even though he would never admit it he respected Vegeta too. But Gohan made him who he is now, if it wasn't for him Piccolo would still be trying to fight Goku all the time and take over the world.

The green-skinned warrior folded his arms across his chest and walked over to the others, "Hi Gohan…Lianna."

Lianna smiled and waved at him.

"So why are you here?" Dende asked.

"Well in a month's time, the Tenka'ichi Budokai tournament is starting again. Lianna and I have been to Master Roshi's and Krillin and Eighteen are gonna sign up…I was wondering if you guys wanted to too." Gohan explained.

"Hmmm…a prospect most intriguing," Piccolo mused.

"Isn't it?" Gohan suddenly cried excitedly.

His friend nodded slowly, "I will be there."

"Great!" Lianna cheered before turning to Dende. "How about you?"

He laughed and shook his head, "No thanks, some Namekians are warriors and some are healers. I'm a healer."

"Oh…ok then,"

"But I'll be watching from up here." He reassured. Gohan and Lianna both grinned, said their goodbyes and took off again back down the tower, passing Korin and Yajirobe once again. The wind generated by their immense speeds blew Yajirobe away once again, and once again he spilled his noodles. This time it was all over Korin.

"Uh…sorry Korin," he said, getting up. Korin said nothing and stood there, fixed to the spot. "You ok, man?"

"Those noodles are HOT!" The little white cat screamed, then shook himself, flinging the food in all directions.

-----

"Oh yeah? So you're entering the next Budokai?" Bulma asked as she, Lianna and Gohan walked into the kitchen at Capsule Corporation. "Why?"

"Well…one of our classmates is Hercule's daughter…" Gohan replied, sitting at the table.

Bulma's eyes widened and she quickly took the seat opposite him, "Hercule? You mean that faker that kept getting in the way when you fought Cell?"

"Yeah…"

"So…the daughter of the 'martial arts champion' huh?"

Lianna sat next to Gohan and frowned, "Yup..."

Gohan glanced at her, he still couldn't help but wonder if she actually was jealous or just sore about the fight, "She's a nice girl…" he started, before Lianna cut in.

"Ha!"

"She's a nice girl," he continued, "she fights to defend people just like we do, but she saw through my disguise 'cause of my voice and stuff…"

Lianna scoffed and folded her arms across her chest, "No, she just tricked you."

"Anyway," Gohan carried on, "she said if I don't compete, she'll tell everyone who I am."

Lianna blinked and looked at him, "What about me?"

"Well…she said if I don't teach her to fly, she'll tell everyone who you are."

She sank back in her seat and frowned deeply, "Hmph."

Bulma snickered quietly and leant her elbows against the table, "You're so different from your dad in some ways…but you're just as dumb."

"Gee…thanks, Bulma."

Lianna's frown was quickly wiped away by the comment her mother made and she tried to suppress a giggle, but to no gain.

"It must be boring to know that you two will win by a huge margin no matter what."

With that, Vegeta walked in, fresh from the Gravity Chamber, "Is it, indeed? Let's make it more interesting then. If you two are competing, then so am I."

Gohan quickly looked up at him, "What?"

"Oh yay!" Lianna cheered with a grin on her face.

Her father leant back against the kitchen counter and smirked conceitedly at Gohan, "Once you were far more powerful than me, but how about now? I've kept up with my training while you've frolicked in peace."

Gohan stared at him. He was pretty worried now. Vegeta probably was a lot stronger than him, he hadn't done a days' real training since he was in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber with Goku.

"It's true!" Bulma spoke up, pulling Gohan out of his train of thought. "This bum does nothing but work out!"

Trunks, who had heard everything from the living room, ran into the kitchen, "Wow! Are Gohan and dad gonna fight?"

"I'll go too!" Gohan, Lianna, Bulma, Vegeta and Trunks glanced around. Who was that?

"That voice out of nowhere…" Gohan mumbled. It then quickly dawned on him who the voice belonged to and he shot up from his seat. "Was that…? Dad, is that you?"

"Kakarrot?" Vegeta was just as surprised as the others to hear is old enemy's voice.

"Sure is!" Goku replied gleefully. "How's everybody been?"

"How've _you _been?" Gohan cried out.

"Pretty good, pretty good…still dead though." There was a brief silence, nobody knew whether or not they should laugh.

"Can you…can you really come to the Budokai?" Asked Gohan.

"Yeah! I get one day to visit the living, you know, and I'll make sure that's the day I come back! If you guys are fighting, I want to be in on it too!"

Gohan grinned widely, cheered, and punched the air, "Alright!"

Trunks, who had been lost ever since he entered the room, looked around at everyone, "Who is that?"

"I'm looking forward to it," Vegeta said, "but will _you_? I'm stronger than before."

"Good," Goku replied, "so am I, Vegeta. Well, I'll see you guys later at the big fight!"

Nobody spoke for several moments before Bulma got to her feet, "You should go tell Krillin and the others."

Lianna shook her head in response, "We already told them about the tournament and stuff…I guess we can leave this to be a surprise."

"Yeah," Gohan agreed as he also got to his feet, "plus I need to get home and tell mom about this! I'll see you guys later."

He started to make his way out of the kitchen when Lianna called out to him, "Okay, train hard…it'd be pretty embarassing if you lost to a girl."

"Hm?" He turned to face her. "You really think Videl's that strong?"

Lianna blinked and frowned deeply before getting up, she growled, pushed past Gohan, stormed through the living room and up to her bedroom.

"What's her problem?" Trunks asked. Gohan shrugged in reply and Bulma just shook her head.

"Yup…just as dumb."

-----

As Gohan burst through the clouds, having left the city, and was heading home, he sighed and stared at the mountains several miles below him. He was thinking about the tournament, and how he'd get to spend time properly with everyone for the first time in seven years. Then it hit him, what about Tienshinhan? And Chiaotzu? And even Yamcha? He groaned to himself, it wouldn't be the same without them.

"I don't know where Tienshinhan is…" he sighed, "Bulma will tell Yamcha…" Then a grin spread wide across his face. "Mom sure will be happy to hear that dad'll be back for a day! And Goten will see his dad for the first time! But…I wonder…" his grin faded as he caught sight of his home, "will mom let me go? I'd want to win too...so I'll have to take time off school to get myself back in shape..."

-----

"What?" Chi-Chi yelled, almost dropping the saucepan full of rice she was about to serve. _Knew I should've waited until after dinner…_her son groaned inwardly.

"Goku's coming back for the tournament! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She quickly set the saucepan down and turned to Goten, who had just ran inside after hearing his mother shouting. "Isn't this great, Goten? You get to see your daddy for a day!" Goten just stared at her, slightly confused.

Chi-Chi suddenly paused, her smile disappeared and she touched her cheeks lightly as Gohan helped himself to the rice. "Wait…the dead don't age, do they? And I've gotten so old! Why didn't I go to more spas?" She wailed, "How many years has it been…Seven?"

"Um…mom…" Gohan started, looking up from his bowl, "…could I enter the tournament too?" He quickly lowered his voice when his mother turned to him. "The winner gets ten million Zeni...second gets five million..."

Chi-Chi's eyes widened and she banged her fists on the table, making hers and Goten's bowls hop off the table and onto the floor. Gohan's would have followed suit, had he not caught it, "Ten million Zeni? Gohan, you _gotta_ enter this thing! That's fifteen million between you and your dad!"

"B-but we don't have any guarantee that…"

"Oh, pfft!" Chi-Chi dismissed, waving a hand, "One of you is gonna win for sure!"

"But I'll have to take time off school to train…"

The boy's mother leaned closer to him, her glare burning holes in his skull, "You better! You can catch up later!"

Suddenly, one of her unpredictable changed of mood took place and she walked over to the kitchen window her hands clasped together. "It's a gift from heaven!" She sighed happily, staring off into space. "My money from dad is running out, and I didn't know what to do!" Gohan and Goten looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously.

"So, Goten, wanna help me train tomorrow?" The youngest Son grinned and nodded excitedly.

"Sure!"

-----

The next morning, a little after sunrise, Gohan and Goten stood outside in their training Gi's. They'd spend the past ten minutes stretching and warming up for a day of training and exercise. Gohan sighed contently and stretched his arms over his head.

"Alright, enough stretching…guess I'll start as a Super Saiyajin!" Goten watched in dumbstruck awe as he watched his brother power up and, in a sudden burst of light and energy, change his appearance altogether. "Okay, let's begin!"

Goten grinned and jumped off the rock he was sitting on, "Yeah!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Dragonball AU**

**Disclaimer: **We do NOT own any characters from Dragonball Z. The only thing we own is this storyline and our characters that go along with it! Enjoy the story.

It was six in the morning and already the sun had risen above the mountainous region around the Son house. The two youngest Son family members – Gohan and Goten – were at the foot of one of the larger mountains in the area. Gohan dumped another armful of baseball-sized rocks on the pile next to Goten.

"Guess I'll start by re-sharpening my reflexes. Goten, throw rocks at me from behind this line." The elder brother drew a line in the dirt with his foot only a couple of metres from a large boulder, which he then stood in front of.

Goten stared at the line, "From _this_ close??"

Gohan smiled and nodded, "We could go even closer, but this'll do for now since I haven't trained in a while." The young boy stood behind the line and picked up a rock.

"R-really? You won't get hurt?"

"I'll be fine. Throw as hard as you can!"

Goten juggled the rock in his one hand and nodded, "Okay…ready?"

Gohan grinned and took his position, "Bring it on!"

Goten pulled his arm back like a pitcher, "Here I…" he started, then launched the rock towards his brother, "go!" Gohan's eyes widened and stared at the rock as it rocketed towards his head. He yelped and quickly dodged to the side, the rock smashed into the boulder behind him, creating a large fissure that went from the top of the stone to three-quarters of the way to the bottom.

Goten grinned brightly, "Wow, you _did_ dodge it! You're awesome!" Gohan stared at him, struggling to believe that a boy of his age could be so strong. The smaller Son picked up another rock and pulled his arm back again.

"I'll keep 'em coming!"

"Wait!" Gohan cried out. "Hold on, Goten!" He ran over to Goten, moved him backwards a few more feet, and drew another line in front of his feet. "Maybe we should start back here…" He then went back to his previous spot and Goten resumed throwing the rocks and Gohan carried on dodging them. With each rock that collided with the ever-decreasing boulder behind him, Gohan's reflexes got quicker and quicker until he was able to predict where the rock was aimed, and therefore able to dodge it, when the projectile was only centimetres away from Goten's fingertips.

"Okay, I'm getting the hang of this!" Gohan said excitedly. "You can come closer now!"

Goten blinked and paused before taking a few steps forward, "Hey…do you think I can be like you?"

"Huh?" Gohan blinked. "What do you mean?"

"That 'Super Saiyajin' thing."

Gohan laughed and shook his head, "Someday – but you're not ready yet! It takes an incredible amount of training and then it's triggered by rage." He then watched in amazement as Goten, in a sudden blast of power, turned SSJ. He stood, speechless, staring at his younger brother and the brilliant golden aura that surrounded him. Goten just stared back, wondering what the big deal was. "G-Goten…s-since when have you…"

"Um…I forget…"

"I can't believe it…" Gohan murmured, "dad and I worked so hard to become Super Saiyajins…"

Goten cocked his head, "Yeah?"

The eldest Son's amazement and state of shock soon diminished, and he grinned, "Say, wanna do some _real_ sparring with me?"

Goten bounced on the spot, "Yeah! Of course I do!"

Gohan stretched lightly, preparing for their next round of training, "Does mom know you turn Super Saiyajin?"

"I showed her once…" Goten replied sadly, "but she got mad at me. She said it makes me look like a punk."

Gohan chuckled lightly, "Mom never did like Super Saiyajins…"

-----

As Gohan and Goten started to train as hard as they could, Vegeta had yet to begin. It didn't worry him though; he knew he was once again stronger than Gohan, so what if the kid had a head start? It was just more competition. The Saiyajin Prince was about to punch in the pass-code for the Gravity Chamber when Lianna hurried up behind him, a bright smile on her face.

"Ready to train dad??" Vegeta glanced at her from the corner of his eye and pressed a few buttons.

"Not today. I'm training with Trunks."

"But daaaad…" Lianna whined, like a kid who was being refused a toy she wanted.

"Go find something else to do today," her father replied as the door hissed and clanked before opening, "he has to be ready for the tournament." And with that, he disappeared into his sanctuary. Disheartened, Lianna sighed and walked back into the living room. Then she remembered, Gohan would be training today too, maybe she could train with him. As she ran to the front door, Bulma stepped out of the kitchen.

"Oh, Lianna…I was just looking for you!"

"Hm?"

Bulma then motioned for Reeni to move in front of her.

"Oh no…no, no, no," Lianna whined again, "I wanted to go train, mom!"

"I need to go work in the lab for a while, Lianna…just for today…"

The young girl gave her a pleading look, "But…but…"

"Just take her with you, she can stay inside with Chi-Chi!"

Sighing in defeat, Lianna nodded and held her hands out to Reeni, who smiled and waddled over to her. She picked up the red-haired girl, left the house and took off to the sky. She muttered to herself, ignoring the whimpers coming from the toddler in her arms. _I can't believe I got stuck babysitting…_

-----

Back at the mountains, Gohan and Goten had gotten more vigorous in their training. They'd punched holes into the mountain and Gohan had made small craters in the ground. Goten leapt up into the air and was about to deliver a roundhouse kick when his brother leapt up into the air and hovered several metres above his head.

"Hey!" He yelled. "Come back down, Gohan! That's not fair!"

"Wh-what…?? You can turn Super Saiyajin, but you can't _fly_!?"

"Hey guys!" Lianna called out, as she landed not far from Goten.

"Hm? Oh, hi Lianna!" Gohan replied before floating back down. "What brings you by?"

Lianna smiled at him and shifted Reeni in her arms, "Dad wanted to train with Trunks, so I decided to come here…"

"Oh okay…say, who's the little girl?" Gohan asked, motioning to Reeni, who buried her face in Lianna's shirt.

"This is Reeni. She's living with us now." She replied, setting Reeni down on the ground.

Gohan smiled and knelt down in front of her, "Hi Reeni…my name's Gohan and this is-"

Before Gohan got the chance to introduce his brother, he'd ran up to them, a grin on his face, and practically pushed Gohan out of the way, "I'm Goten!"

In response, Reeni did nothing more than wrap her arms around Lianna's leg and bury her face into it. Lianna smiled and looked at the young demi Saiyajin, "She's just a…little…shy…" Her smile faded as she gazed at him.

"Um…why are you staring at me like that?" Suddenly, she leant down and grabbed a thick lock of Goten's hair.

"The hell??" As she tugged the boy flinched and tried pulling away. "Ah! You're a Super Saiyajin!"

Goten rubbed his head and nodded as she let go, "Yeah…"

"And so young too…"

"Yeah, I know." Gohan muttered, almost jealous that Goten had now become the youngest Saiyajin ever – half or not – to turn SSJ, usurping his ownership of the title.

"Well…it's very nice to meet you, Goten." Lianna smiled again. "I've heard about you from my mom." The little boy grinned.

"So…now what?" Asked Gohan.

"You're training with Goten right now, so I guess I'll just-" She was cut off by the distant, though nearing, whirring of rotor blades above their heads. They all looked up and squinted, trying to see whom it was.

"Oh no…" Gohan groaned. "Is that…?" Lianna frowned and glared at the yellow mecha as it passed over them, miles above, and headed towards the Son house. _Ugh…that eager harpy…_she spat mentally,_ I thought she'd come tomorrow or something. Well…good! I can keep an eye on her now!_

"Guess I'll have to teach two people how to fly now…" Gohan sighed. He quickly turned to Goten, realising his hair was still not its natural colour. "Goten, a girl from my school is coming here. Don't show her how strong you are and you can _never_ turn SSJ in front of her!"

Goten blinked and looked up at him, "She'd think I'm a punk…?"

"Something like that…ok, we need to be getting back. Goten and I can run back…you and Reeni can fly on Nimbus if you want, Lianna." The girl smiled and nodded, picking her young charge back up.

"Okay."

-----

"Are you sure you didn't come here to ask him out!?" Chi-Chi screeched over the kitchen at Videl, who stood near the door just in case the unusually incensed housewife decided to send the pot of rice she was cooking over at her. She sure looked like she was about to, all Videl had done was ask if Gohan was home.

"I…said…_NO_!!" The young girl yelled back, getting pretty irate herself. Just then, as Chi-Chi was about to retort, Gohan; Goten; Lianna and Reeni entered the house through the kitchen. Gohan looked at Videl and she folded her arms over her chest.

"So…how did you find my house?" He asked.

Videl rolled her eyes, as if the answer should be obvious to everyone, "I looked on the student roster, duh."

Lianna scowled and muttered lowly,"Nosy little bit-"

Reeni quickly placed her little hand over Lianna's mouth, "Bad word…" Lianna just kept scowling.

"So what's the idea of cutting out like that, huh??" Videl had now turned her temper on Gohan, who blinked innocently. "You said you'd teach me to fly!" He was about to answer had Chi-Chi not butted in next.

"Gohan, is she really gonna be in this tournament!?"

"Yeah, she is mom. She was the one who told me about the tournament to begin with. I promised I'd teach her to fly."

"Blackmailed you, more like." Lianna muttered under her breath, but not so quiet so Videl couldn't hear. And she did. The teens glared at each other, like two animals about to do battle over a fresh kill.

"Hmph," Chi-Chi snorted, "well alright then, but you'd better not be thinking you're gonna use this to snag him!"

Lianna grinned and held back a snicker, _Right on Chi-Chi! _She cheered mentally as she looked at Gohan. _I already got dibs…kinda._

"Oh I'm sure!!" Videl shouted before storming outside. As if the whole argument had never taken place, as if Videl never walked into the house, Chi-Chi smiled and went back to the rice she was cooking. Gohan, Goten, Lianna and Reeni glanced at each other and shrugged. No matter who was around or what time, day or year it was – Chi-Chi's temper always remained fickle.

Videl walked in a huff over to where the others previously were and sat on a rock next to a large boulder, roughly ten feet high. Gohan and Goten ran after her and Lianna trailed behind them, just dragged her feet, not really wanting to be there at all if Videl was there too. Hercule's daughter folded her arms across her chest and watched as they approached.

"Lianna doesn't seem too happy." She said to Gohan after they'd sat next to the rock. Lianna and Reeni were still a little way off from them.

"She…uh…just didn't…wanna…be stuck babysitting," he smiled nervously, "that's all." Videl just grunted in response.

_Geez…I don't know why they don't get along, _Gohan thought, _she's like Vegeta in so many ways…_

After a few minutes Lianna had caught up with them, she sat under a tree a hundred feet away from them and placed Reeni on her lap while Gohan ran through the basics of flying with Videl. She looked down at the little girl and sighed lightly.

"I would have left you with Chi-Chi…but I need someone here to keep me company," she glared over at Videl and Gohan – Goten had disappeared somewhere, probably with some animal, "and keep me from killing that…that bit-"

"Bad word!" Reeni cut in again.

"Okay!" Said Gohan cheerfully, "you're about to learn how to fly. It's just a matter of controlling ki, so it's not _too_ hard…although it _can_ get tricky when you try to go fast."

Videl raised a suspicious eyebrow, "Ki? What's that?" Gohan just stared at her.

"Uh…Gohan?"

"C-come again?"

"What's ki?"

"Y-you don't know?? You've gotta be kid-oh, wait…maybe you've got a different word for it. You know, it's energy – the latent power in your body."

Suddenly Goten leapt up on top of the ten-foot boulder from behind it and grinned, "Like this!"

Videl looked up just in time to see him, arm straight and palm outstretched. A quick blast of white light burst from his hand and before Videl could react or even register what had happened a patch of ground about eight feet from her exploded, covering her in dirt and dust. She felt like fainting, or was it shellshock? Maybe it just hadn't happened and that she was starting to crack completely. Yeah, that was it. Little boys didn't shoot lightning from their hands…did they?

"Yeah! That kind of energy!" Gohan cried, obviously not fazed.

"Oh…r-right…of c-course…" Videl mumbled.

"So what do _you_ call it?" It took a few moments for the question to sink in before Videl slowly looked at him.

"A…trick?"

"It's not a trick!" Gohan laughed. "It's real power."

"Then it's magic! I don't know! I've never heard of it!" Videl was back; she had recovered pretty quickly from her small shock, to the slight dismay of Gohan and Goten. They rather liked her being quiet. Then Gohan twigged something.

"Wait a minute…you've never…this," he sighed, "could be a problem."

"Do you need it to fly??" Videl was half angry and half worried – what if she actually _couldn't_ learn to fly? _Ever_?

"Don't worry!" Gohan said defensively. "Everyone has ki, it's just hard to control it at first." Her mood changed from angry and worried to excited and happy. Well, as happy as she could get anyway – which wasn't all that much, "Really??"

Gohan nodded and looked up at Goten, who was now sitting on the boulder, "You'll have to wait a bit, squirt. I have to teach Videl how to access and control her ki first."

"Okay!" Goten grinned again before leaping off the boulder and landing, like a gibbon, in the tree above Reeni and Lianna, who had started dozing until Goten hit the tree with such force it shook the whole thing and scared her out of her light slumber. Reeni watched and giggling uncontrollably, clapping her hands – Videl laughed along with her. Lianna growled loudly and had started to get up before Goten popped down in front of her, a grin on his face and upside down though his hair remained glued in the one position just like Goku's would have done. She squealed in surprise and fell back down onto the grass. Videl doubled over in laughter and almost fell off the rock she was sitting on.

"Don't you laugh at me, Satan!" Lianna yelled angrily, her face almost burgundy from embarrassment. Videl wiped tears from her eyes and giggled to herself.

"You know, you're gonna have to calm down if you wanna start now." Gohan stated, seemingly unimpressed with Lianna's slapstick mishap. He did find it funny, but he knew better than to laugh at her. Lianna took after her father in more ways than the power level. Videl sighed happily, slid off the rock and sat cross-legged on the grass. Gohan sat opposite her and smiled.

"Okay, shut your eyes." Videl did what she was told and clenched her fists.

"No, no…don't tense up. You can't draw out your ki until you're quiet and calm." Videl nodded and inhaled deeply before letting it out again. She relaxed as much as she could and waited for Gohan.

"Right, now focus…"

A few hours passed, and Videl hadn't really gotten that far in her training. Videl put it down to the whole ki-thing being dumb and a trick and that Gohan was making her do it in hopes she would get annoyed and leave without finding the secret to the illusion. Gohan just said that she was way too angry for a girl her age and that she needed to relax and not take everything so seriously. Videl told him to shut up.

"Come on, lunch's ready." Gohan said before getting to his feet.

Videl blinked and looked up at him as he stretched, "How do you know?"

"I can smell it!" He grinned.

"You can smell the food? From all the way over there??" She couldn't believe him, she couldn't smell a ton of dead cows from this far, so how could he smell one lunch?

"Yup, now come on." Videl blushed and glanced downwards.

"I can't get up…" She mumbled under her breath.

"Excuse me…?" Replied Gohan, holding back a snicker.

The girl glared up at him and balled her hands into fists, "I said I can't get up! I can't move my legs, ok?!"

He tried to channel his laughter into a smile, which he did, but not before letting out a little laugh. He leant down, picked her up under her arms and stood her up. She did little more than stumble and collapse under the weight of her own body. With lighting reflexes Gohan managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Guess you're not used to sitting in one position for so long…here, I'll carry you back to the house."

Videl frowned up at him, "I don't need your help, Gohan. I can walk on my own. I'm a big girl."

He paid no attention, of course, and lifted her up into his arms. She yelped and wrapped her arms around his neck. He did it with such ease it was scary…though she _had_ seen him lift heavier things before in his superhero guise.

Lianna watched the two teenagers, deep in scorn, as he picked her up. She could see the way Videl was looking at him. _Little hussie,_ she thought, _who does she think she is flirting with him like that? I bet she can walk…_

"C'mon, Lianna!" Gohan called over before floating a few inches in the air, pulling her out of her thoughts. The Saiyajin princess got to her feet, with Reeni in her arms, before Goten flipped down from a branch in the tree.

"What about me??"

"You can run and jump almost as fast as we can fly, you'll only be a little ways behind." Goten pouted and folded his arms across his chest.

"But I hate being behind…"

Lianna looked at him and smiled lightly, "I'll stay with you, Goten, don't worry."

The little boy grinned and jumped up and down, "Yay!"

-----

Minutes later, the whole family, plus Videl, were sitting around the dinner table, which had been moved outside. Birds chirped and the sun beat down on them, making the hot food seem hotter.

Reeni giggled and played around with her chopsticks, paying no attention whatsoever to the bowl of noodles sitting in front of her. She giggled again and used them like swords, almost jabbing Lianna in the eye. For a human baby, she had quick hands.

The most sheepish of the group, Videl, sat with her hands on her lap, watching the others eat quite loudly.

Well, Gohan and Goten ate loudly. Lianna and Chi-Chi ate like normal people –quietly and slowly.

"Thanks for inviting me to lunch…" she mumbled quietly. Gohan glanced at her, amazed at how meek she was being.

Chi-Chi swallowed her mouthful and straightened herself, "Do I have a choice? How do I _not_ feed someone while we all eat?"

Lianna tried to hold back the snicker that lurked somewhere down the back of her throat, but nothing she did worked, so she let it out a little. Videl glared at her and picked up a fork.

"Mm, man! This is good!" She said with a mouthful of noodles. "Better than what our chef makes!"

Chi-Chi blinked and looked at her. "Chef? Does your family run a restaurant?"

"Hm? What? Oh, no…" Videl swallowed the food, "my family just hires a chef to cook for us."

Chi-Chi's jaw hung open, "You must be rich! Are we talking a twenty-room mansion or what?"

"Dunno…never really counted," she took another bite of her food, "maybe…fifty rooms? Something like that."

Chi-Chi's jaw hit the floor.

"Fifty!? Y-you're _filthy_ _rich_!!"

Lianna glanced up from her bowl and scoffed silently. _That's nothing compared to Capsule Corp…_

Chi-Chi grinned widely and looked between Gohan and Videl. "So when do you guys get married??"

Gohan's eyes widened and his half-chewed food found it's way back to the plate. Lianna stared at her, stunned. Videl looked at her and smiled smugly.

The rest of lunch had been quiet, very quiet, and the silence would have been absolute if it wasn't for Goten messing around. The second Gohan finished and excused himself he hurried from the table over to the field, just in case Chi-Chi started talking about marriage again. Within a few minutes, the others had left and arrived back at the field, ready to continue training.

Lianna sat, scowling, under the tree, still angry from Videl laughing at her and annoyed – very annoyed – at Chi-Chi for implying Gohan had any remote interest in the Satan girl.

Goten was playing with Reeni on the grass, they giggled, rolled around, and chased each other. The young Saiyajin tagged Reeni and laughed before rolling away. Reeni giggled and waddled after him. "Can't caaaatch me!" Goten chanted as he broke into a light jog. Reeni frowned lightly and, determined, tried running after him. She stumbled, tried steadying herself, and fell over a rock. Goten glanced back and paused before turning.

Reeni burst into tears. She wailed and rolled onto her back. Goten hurried back over to her. "Don't cry!" He said, afraid he'd get in trouble if she were hurt. The young boy leant down to help her up and was sent reeling backwards as a sharp surge of electricity sparked from Reeni's arm and hit him square in the chest. "What was that??" He cried out. Reeni sniffed and looked at him. She sat up, wiped her eyes, and cocked her head slightly.

-----

"Yes, that's it! That's ki! See? You're picking it up quickly now that you're practicing martial arts." Cheered Gohan as the ki between Videl's hands glowed brightly. She dissipated it, shot to her feet, and grinned.

"So can I fly now!?"

"Huh? Oh…no, not yet. You have to be able to control the flow of ki at will." Videl sighed and slumped back down to the grass.

-----

Meanwhile, in heaven, Goku was making preparations for the World Martial Arts Tournament back home on Earth. He hovered one and a half metres above the ground, a training weight on each limb, punching and kicking the air savagely. Whatever the air had done, it was probably sorry.

King Kai grinned and watched his young student training.

A familiar figure meandered over, rather smugly, and silently scorned Kai and his stringy-looking pupil. It wasn't long before he made his disdain known.

"Hm…didn't know people still trained that way."

King Kai glanced at him and sighed internally. What he wouldn't give to have the chance to shut South Kai's big flapping trap,"Well…South Kai, how long has it been? Not long enough, I think."

"Got that right." South Kai muttered as he placed his hands behind his back. "So that's Son Goku? One of the top fighters of the north?" The Kai didn't even try to cover his snickering. "How heavy are those weights?"

King Kai shrugged nonchalantly and looked up at the sky, "Oh…not much, about two tons each, I think…"

The Southern Kai's jaw dropped and hung open. Was it even possible? And he was just floating there, swiping at the air as if those things weren't even on his arms and legs! It was King Kai's turn to snicker.

"Surprised?"

"H-hardly!" South Kai lied, "in the southern planets there's this mighty warrior named Papoye! He'll eat this guy for breakfast, count on it."

"Really…say, Goku's going to enter a tournament on a northern planet called Earth, why don't you enter your great Papoye too?" South Kai didn't pause for a second before accepting the challenge, voice raised and fists waving.

King Kai grinned and looked at Goku, "Hey Goku! Want to go heavier??" Goku stopped and looked down at his trainer.

"Sure!" he beamed, "how much?"

"Hmmm…ten tons? How's that for you?" South Kai stared at his fellow Kai in disbelief, then up at Goku. How could he possibly hold up ten tons on each limb?

"Isn't that a little much?" Goku wondered, "I won't be able to move."

South Kai grinned, laughed, and turned away from the floating Saiyajin, "Ha! I knew it. You still love you're stupid little jokes, don't you, North Kai?"

"I'll let you go Super, Goku."

"Oh, in that case – fine!"

South Kai blinked and turned back to them, "Huh?"

"So, South Kai," King Kai said as he turned to him, "go ahead. Turn it up to ten tons."

"Ten tons each…that's forty tons! You better be sure about this!"

"Just do it…"

"Don't blame me if you break something, okay?" South Kai raised his arms above his head and concentrated on Goku's training weights. There was no way he would be able to take that much weight. He quickly forced his hands down to his sides, and Goku was slowly being dragged down to the ground.

"Oof! Man, that's heavy…" It took longer than usual, probably due to the excessive strain the weight was putting on his body, but after a few seconds the air burst into a mixture of brilliant white and gold, and Goku was soon punching and kicking the air as he had when the weights were only two tons. South Kai just stared, dumbfounded.

"The tournament's in twenty-eight days. Be sure to tell Papoye."

"S-sure…" South Kai stammered, "Although h-he probably won't even b-bother to go! Why sh-should he bother with a stupid tournament?? H-he's beyond such things!" And with that, laughing to cover his nervousness, the Kai quickly started walking away. "I'll tell him, b-but he'll probably laugh!"

-----

Back at the Son's training grounds, Lianna was still under the tree and Reeni, tired from playing with Goten, was sleeping on her lap with her head against Lianna's ample chest. She was still scowling at Videl, who by now had just about managed to learn how to float, and she wasn't very good at it. But slowly, and much to Lianna's annoyance, she was getting slightly better at it.

"That's it! You're floating!" Gohan cheered. Videl frowned deeply.

"Shut up! I can't concentrate with you yelling!" she snapped before slowly lowering herself back to the ground.

Gohan grinned at his pupil's success, "Great job! You learned to float in just one day!"

Videl sighed and looked up at Goten, who was zipping around the air with incredible ease, "Is it really that great of an achievement…?"

Gohan looked up and sighed quietly, "He uh…already had a good grasp of ki to begin with. You'll be able to fly like him…soon."

Videl folded her arms across her chest and sighed irritably, "I'll come back tomorrow."

"What? Why??" You got over the hard part…you can do the rest by yourself."

Lianna, hearing their conversation, frowned, got up with Reeni in her arms, and walked over to them.

"I want to know more about ki." Videl demanded. "Or do you not want me around?"

"What the hell do you think?" Lianna muttered. Videl shot a glare at her, and Gohan chose to ignore it.

"Th-that's not what I meant…"

"Then see you tomorrow." Videl replied before quickly taking out her capsule and releasing her helicopter. "See ya!"

"Yeah…um, actually…"

Videl looked back at him and sighed, "What?"

"It's…it's about your hair. I think you should cut it short." Videl smiled coyly, probably for the first time in her life, and blushed, "You…like girls with short hair?"

Gohan blinked and, realising how what he said sounded, quickly shook his hands and his head, "N-no! It's just that short hair would be better in a fight! Long hair could get in your eyes, or the other guy could pull on it…"

Videl paused, trying to take in what he just said. The nerve of him! Criticising her hair like that. She glared darkly at him and growled deeply. If she didn't need him for training she'd beat his head in there and then.

"SO WHAT!!? MY HAIR IS MY BUSINESS!!" She screamed in outrage, her light blush now turning into an angry crimson. Lianna snickered and Videl immediately turned on her. "What are _you_ laughing at, huh!? Purple isn't exactly attractive, you know!" She turned back to Gohan. "And her hair is longer than mine!!"

Lianna burst out laughing at her, "Oh please, honey, I can handle myself _and_ my hair in a fight." Videl flushed more and stomped off to her helicopter. Goten dropped down next to Gohan and waved at Videl, who ignored him and hastily sped away through the air.

"Why'd she get mad?" He asked his older brother. Gohan shrugged and sighed deeply.

"I don't know…all I know is, I can't train like this!"

-----

Gohan had decided that he and Goten should get up early the next morning to get some real training in before Videl showed up. They had planned to really push themselves before then. Unfortunately, early morning training had crossed Videl's mind too.

They were both in their transformed states and about five minutes into an all-out fight before the distinct whirring of Videl's helicopter rang in their ears.

"Quick! Back to normal, Goten!" Gohan cried as she got closer. The two brothers changed back to normal just in time – any later and Videl would have seen them.

She landed, got out, capsulized the vehicle, and walked over with a frown on her face.

"Gohan…" Goten mumbled, "that IS Videl…right?"

"I…think so…"

They both stared at her and her new short haircut. It didn't look funny, as Goten thought it would, and it didn't look unattractive, as Gohan hoped it would.

"Come on! Let's pick up where we left off." Videl ordered before heading towards a rock to sit on.

"Girls…" Gohan muttered as he watched her, "I'll never understand…"


End file.
